Mr. Trinh Van Quyet's wife paid an additional 353 billion VND to fix the problem.

Today, nearly 6 months after the first instance verdict, the High People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeal of former FLC Chairman Trinh Van Quyet and 49 defendants.

At 7:25, the defendants were escorted to court, but Mr. Quyet had not yet appeared.

During the proceedings, according to the secretary's report, many defendants were absent, including Mr. Quyet, who submitted a request for postponement. His five lawyers at the appeal hearing also submitted a request for postponement of the trial.

Reporting on Mr. Quyet's absence at the request of the presiding judge, the judicial police said that the detention center and Hospital 198 confirmed that the former FLC chairman was being treated as an inpatient due to coughing up blood, hepatitis, kidney disease, stomach disease... and was not yet eligible for discharge.

In a petition asking the appeals court to postpone the trial, former FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet said that in the past 6 months his wife had paid an additional 353 billion VND in compensation.

He said his health was "very bad" and his lawyers had all requested a postponement due to work schedules or conflicts with other cases. The final reason was that Mr. Quyet asked for more time to continue to overcome the consequences of the case.

After the first instance trial, Mr. Quyet's wife paid the remedial costs twice, totaling 353 billion VND. This was acknowledged by the Trial Panel and announced at the appeal hearing.

In the absence of Mr. Quyet and many other members, the court held a public vote. Most of the lawyers and all the defendants present agreed to postpone.

Of the 140 investors present as victims and stakeholders, only two agreed to postpone.

Before consulting the Procuracy, the presiding judge analyzed that in order to open the appeal session, just stamping and sending 1,000 documents and invitations to the summoned parties, the court had spent 7 working days with 5 staff members.

"The cost for these papers to reach the recipient is 7-12 thousand VND each. That's just the very simple cost, not counting the escort work, security forces... how much it would cost, please help me calculate. It's all budget money. The court said that so that everyone can understand and comprehend, no one wants to open it to postpone, everyone wants to try it right away to save the budget, because not only you have to work hard to arrange your travel time", the presiding judge said.

After the prosecutor expressed his opinion in favor of the postponement option, the panel of judges is debating.

Of the 50 defendants, the former FLC chairman and his two sisters asked for a reduction in their prison sentences, compensation amounts, or to be exempted from liability for compensation. 45 defendants asked for a reduction in their sentences, to have their prison sentences changed to suspended sentences, and to be exempted or reduced from compensation.

The two people who appealed the entire verdict were defendants Le Van Tuan (auditor of CPA Company) and Do Nhu Tuan (former general director of FLC Faros Construction Joint Stock Company - Faros Company).

Of the 134 victims who appealed, only 5 were present, 35 had requests for postponement, and the rest were absent.

The court summoned 384 people with related rights and obligations, but 135 people showed up, 85 people applied for a trial in absentia, and the others did not come to court. Thus, out of 518 investors summoned, only 140 people showed up this morning.

During the first instance, the Hanoi People's Court summoned nearly 100,000 investors who had bought or still held stocks in the "ecosystem" created by Mr. Quyet.

Mr. Quyet's three brothers still "owe" compensation of 2,205 billion VND.

The court accused Mr. Quyet, when he was chairman of FLC Group, of building an ecosystem of 82 companies, including Faros, which was acquired in 2011 with a charter capital of VND1.5 billion. Mr. Quyet and his accomplices then used fraudulent tricks to inflate the capital to VND4,300 billion and listed it on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE).

The court assessed this as an act of fraud and property appropriation when Faros' ROS shares were purchased by more than 25,000 investors, with a total value of more than VND 3,620 billion.

With crimeStock market manipulation, the prosecution accused Mr. Quyet and his accomplices of asking relatives to register 20 companies and 500 securities accounts, then using them to buy and sell a large number of 5 FLC stocks including GAB, HAI, FLC, AMD and ART, thereby earning a profit of more than 700 billion VND.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court of first instance also ordered Mr. Quyet's three brothers to jointly compensate investors more than VND1,785 billion due toFraudulent appropriation of propertyn; paid more than 684 billion VND to the State budget for the actStock market manipulation,total 2,470 billion VND. Mr. Quyet in court asked to compensate the children in full.

Mr. Quyet and his youngest sister, defendant Trinh Thi Minh Hue, also have to pay 1.6 billion VND in court fees. The court recorded that the total amount paid by the defendants and their families is 264 billion VND. Mr. Quyet's siblings still "owe" about 2,205 billion VND in civil obligations.

Previously, in court, he affirmed that he was always concerned about finding a way to remedy the consequences, saying that his personal assets were seized worth about 4,800-5,000 billion VND, and hoped that the court would create conditions to remedy the situation.

Mr. Quyet and his two sisters continued to have more than 2,200 square meters of real estate in Nam Tu Liem and Cau Giay districts (Hanoi) seized.

At the request of the Ministry of Public Security, 500 securities accounts of Ms. Hue with a total balance of 7.6 billion VND and 243 million shares (under the codes GAB, FLC and ART) were also frozen by the State Securities Commission. These stock codes have all been suspended from trading.

Who is the "victim", who is the "person involved"?

The verdict stated that after 5 capital increases, Mr. Quyet's group listed 43 million ROS shares on HoSE, selling the first time to25,853 victims, embezzling 3,621 billion VND.

In principle, the defendants must compensate the victims for the amount of money they spent on buying inflated shares. However, in reality, many investors sold ROS shares after buying them, some of them bought and sold them multiple times, and the shares were mixed up in subsequent transactions.

Currently, there are investors who have sold all their shares so they do not request compensation. There are investors who do not know that their assets have been defrauded so they do not request compensation.

Considering that at the time the defendants sold ROS shares, there were buyers at high prices but also investors who bought at low prices, the court of first instance assessed that the order matching transactions took place over many years, and up to now, the exact buying and selling prices in the order matching transactions could not be determined.

Citing reasons for ensuring fairness, the court ordered Mr. Quyet and his accomplices to compensate investors for the amount of money misappropriated on the inflated value of each sold share, corresponding to the volume of shares these victims owned.

430 million shares were issued according to Faros' charter capital of VND 4,300 billion, of which the inflated value was VND 3,102 billion. Thus, each listed ROS share issued had 72.15% inflated value.

The face value of ROS shares offered on the market at that time was VND10,000. Therefore, the defendants inflated the price by VND7,215 per share. "The defendants will have to compensate VND7,215 for each share sold to the victim, multiplied by the number of shares the victim owns," the verdict stated.

Of the 133 victims holding ROS shares in the initial sale, 85 people submitted a petition to the court confirming that they had received full compensation from the defendant Quyet's family. The defendants must continue to compensate the remaining victims (48 people) according to the above price plan.

The Hanoi Court allows the victims who have sold all their ROS shares to transfer the inflated value to the next buyer and other victims who have not yet requested compensation to request consideration to protect their legitimate rights in another civil case.

About how to determinerelated person, the first instance judgment determined that as of the date ROS was delisted from the HoSE, September 5, 2022, there were 63,075 investors (excluding the defendants) holding a total of more than 567 million ROS shares. During the investigation and at the trial,27,866The investor who has a claim for compensation for damages, as determined by the court, is the person with related rights and obligations.

Explaining, the panel of judges said that considering the act of inflating Faros' equity to fraudulently appropriate assets, this stock was forced to be delisted, affecting the interests of investors and the liquidity of ROS. Therefore, the defendants must also be held responsible.

However, the buying and selling of stocks is established on the basis of matching orders of millions of securities accounts in the market. When investors make many transactions to buy and sell a stock code, it is "unable to determine whose stocks the investor buys and at what time".

In addition to the original value of the stock at par value, the stock is also affected by the market, investor psychology, and other objective and subjective factors. On the other hand, Faros Company is still operating, ROS shares are still circulating, just not listed on the stock exchange.

The court said that "it is impossible to force the defendants to compensate the entire amount of money that investors spent to buy shares, but can only force the defendants to compensate for the inflated portion of each share."

The court concluded on the compensation plan as follows: Of the 133 victims who requested compensation, 85 people have received full compensation. The remaining 48 people will be compensated according to the formula of 7,125 VND for each ROS share they still hold, totaling more than 2 billion VND.

The remaining 27,866 related people with requests will be compensated 5,466 VND for each ROS share, totaling 1,783 billion VND.