VietNamNet Bridge – The Year of Dragon 2012, in Oriental philosophy, is a good year for businessmen. However, it turned out to be an unlucky year for many heads of securities companies.

Le Ho Khoi, General Director of the Trang An Securities Company, has been prosecuted and put into temporary detention for the behavior instructing his officers to “play tricks” to borrow and appropriate money from the Saigon – Hanoi Bank (SHB).

The arrest of Ho Khoi has been anticipated. Prior to that, the State Securities Commission (SSC) discovered a lot of violations made by the company relating to the brokerage and service providing activities.

At Trang An, investors could buy securities even though they did not have enough money. Therefore, the Securities Depository Center stopped the services relating to the depositing and offset payment since October 13, 2012. The HCM City Stock Exchange has also stopped transactions with Trang An and stopped providing information since October 15, 2012, while putting Trang An into the list of the companies for compulsory membership termination.

The finance report for the first half of 2012 showed that Trang An incurred the loss of VND5.3 billion and the accumulative loss of VND70 billion dong by June 30, 2012. The company’s short term debts have reached VND146.3 billion.

When Khoi was arrested, Trang An was still put under the special control as per a decision by SSC which says that the special control lasts from September 6, 2012 to March 6, 2013.

Le Ho Khoi, born in 1961, has a PhD degree in economics. He spent 10 years working at the State Pricing Committee, then he took important posts at the Ministry of Finance, State Securities Commission and the Vietnam Development Bank. In 2007-2009, Khoi took the office as Chair and General Director of Trang An Securities Company.

On August 10, 2012, the official websites of the Hanoi and HCM City bourses showed the news that Phan Minh Anh Ngoc, Chair of RUBSE Securities Company was arrested, former General Director of RFC, a finance company.

Ngoc reportedly was arrested for “deliberately violating the state’s regulations on economic management which has caused serious consequences” when he was General Director of RFC. Ngoc took the office as Chair of RUBSE since April 5, 2011.

RUBSE is one of the six securities companies which have been put under the special control by SSC since April 23, 2012, because of the ratio of usable capital on total risks smaller than 120 percent.

On August 2, 2012, the police prosecuted and arrested Phan Huy Chi, Chair and CEO of SME Securities Company for swindling to appropriate assets. Deputy Chair of SME Pham Minh Tuan was also arrested.

Tuan reportedly instructed officers to forge the documents of an individual to sign a contract on capital contribution to make an investment deal. SME got VND107 billion dong from an insurance company, but it only could pay a part of money to repair the damage and did not pay the remaining VND60 billion.

Phan Huy Chi has the master degree in economics law, while Tuan finished the Hanoi Finance & Accountancy University, Foreign Language University and has the master degree of Solvay Business School.

In June 2012, Hoang Xuan Quyen, former General Director of Lien Viet Securities Company was arrested for abusing the power while on duty.

Lien Viet in April 2011 discovered that Quyen accepted OTC shares (unlisted shares) as the collaterals, thus causing a financial loss to Lien Viet.

Quyen was once the Finance Director of Motorola Group in Chicago, the US, Chief Accountant of Comvik, Kinnewik Telecom Group, Commercial Director of Ringer Media. He has the master degree in finance and doctorate in business administration.

Manh Ha

Mr Le Ho Khoi.