The Hanoi People’s Court on Monday suspended a trial involving 15 people who were charged with the falsification of stock trading documents, stock price manipulation and fraudulent asset transfers.

Defendant in the first-ever trial on stock price manipulation at court. 

Due to the absence of lawyers for defendant Vũ Thị Hoa and a number of witnesses, Hoa proposed the trial be postponed to ensure the rights of the defendant.

The trial will resume on April 4.

The accused include 36-year-old Trần Hữu Tiệp – former management board chairman of the Central Mineral Jsc (MTM), 54-year-old Nguyễn Văn Dĩnh – former director of the mining firm Nari Hamico and former officials of the Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam (BIDV) and Tiên Phong Bank (TPBank).

The defendants were accused of falsifying trading documents of MTM shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), manipulating MTM share prices and fraudulently transferring MTM stocks on the market.

According to the indictment, Dĩnh bought the legal documents of MTM in 2010. The company did not operate and had no charter capital.

Dĩnh and Tiệp collaborated with bank officials to falsify the company’s portfolio, which showed MTM had 103 shareholders with 31 million shares – equal to VNĐ310 billion (US$13.4 million) – in 2014 to meet listing requirements.

Bank officials helped the two defendants counterfeit financial invoices worth a total of VNĐ485 million to validate shareholders’ capital contribution and the firm’s business results.

Dĩnh was put into custody in May 2015 while he was completing requirements to list MTM shares on the stock market.

Tiệp and his accomplices had tried to put MTM shares on the stock market and by June 2016, when the false trading of MTM shares was detected, the company had 1,156 investors. Of these, 822 investors reported the case to the police for investigation.

The accused have caused a VNĐ56 billion loss for the stock market, including VNĐ54 billion worth of revenue from selling shares to investors.

The first-ever case of stock price manipulation was put on trial in November last year. The People’s Court later returned the file for further investigation due to some unknown points in the case. — VNS