APEC family shares

On June 28, the Hanoi Police issued a decision on filing charges against Nguyen Do Lang, CEO of APEC Securities (APS), Huynh Thi Mai Dung (Lang’s wife), and Pham Duy Hung, president of APS, and detained them for "manipulating the stock market".

This was related to a criminal case involving three companies, namely APS, APEC Investment JSC (API) and IDJ Investment (IDJ), known as the APEC family,, with relations with the APEC Group ecosystem.

On June 23, the State Securities Commission (SSC) said it had received a notice from the investigation agency on a decision to take legal proceedings in the criminal case of manipulating the stock market at the three companies – APS, API and IDJ.

The stocks in 2021 saw prices increasing by tens of times. But information about the prosecution led to a 15 percent price decrease to the floor price level in the last three trading sessions to around VND10,000 per share.

Louis family shares

On December 9, 2022, the Supreme People's Procuracy issued a decision to prosecute Pham Thanh Tung, Chair of Tri Viet Securities - TVSC (TVB), for manipulating the stock market in accordance with a decision to prosecute a case involving Louis Holdings JSC, Louis Capital JSC (TGG), Louis Land JSC (BII), Tri Viet Securities Joint Stock Company (TVB) dated April 20.

In April 2022, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) issued the decision on prosecuting and detaining Do Thanh Nhan, President of Louis Holdings, and Do Duc Nam, CEO of Tri Viet Securities. The defendants allegedly used tricks to manipulate the prices of TGG, BII and other stocks.

In 2021, when the stock market was growing strongly, most stocks saw prices escalate. Some stocks saw prices increase by tens of times, despite their poor performance. Louis family shares were among them.

The price of TGG shares of Louis Capital soared from VND1,200 per share in early 2021 to VND75,000 in July 2021 after rice trader Do Thanh Nhan and a group of shareholders related to Louis Holdings acquired Truong Giang Investment and Construction (TGG) and renamed Louis Capital. 

Meanwhile, BII (Louis Land) share prices soared from VND1,000 per share in July 2020 to VND34,000 in July 2021. Another share belonging to the Louis family, APG Securities, soared from below VND5,000 in July 2020 to VND22,000 in October 2021.

The case of Trinh Van Quyet

On March 29, 2022, the Ministry of Public Security (MPI) released a decision on initiating a criminal case and detained Trinh Van Quyet, former president of FLC Group, to investigate stock market manipulation.

On August 25, 2022, the ministry prosecuted Quyet and relevant individuals on a charge of fraudulent appropriation of property at FLC Faros and other companies.

The investigation found that from 2014 to 2016, Trinh Van Quyet, Trinh Thi Minh Hue, Trinh Thi Thuy Nga and Huong Tran Kieu Dung conducted swindling to appropriate assets by carrying out forged procedures to falsely increase charter capital from VND1.5 billion to VND4.3 trillion, or 430 million Faros shares. 

When the 430 million ROS shares were listed on the bourse, they sold the shares to appropriate investors’ money.

Quyet later told his younger sister Trinh Thi Minh Hue to sell all the ROS shares in the name of Trinh Van Quyet and ROS shares in the names of five other individuals in order to get VND6.412 trillion.

On June 23, MPI prosecuted 15 more defendants who helped Quyet manipulate the stock market, connected to BOS Securities, FLC Group and relevant companies.

The FLC family has many shares of FLC, ROS, AMD, GS and KLF.

In 2020, FLC Mining Investment and Asset Management JSC (GAB) set an unprecedented record in the market with a price increase of 1,100 percent. The share price was VND16,250 per share in early 2020 and soared to VND196,800 late that year.

On June 27, two more shares of FLC family were forced to delist, including AMD and GAB.

Prior to that, the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE) released a decision on compulsory delisting FLC, ROS and HAI shares, while ART and KLF were not allowed to be traded in the stock market.

The worst case

In the two decade-history of the stock market, the heaviest ever sanction has been imposed on MTM former president Tran Huu Tiep. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for swindling to appropriate assets. 

MTM Company did not have assets and business operations, but it forged documents to list on UpCom and forged documents of a shareholders’ meeting.

Manh Ha