Under a decision by the Hanoi People’s Court, former president of FCL Group Trinh Van Quyet and 49 defendants will be brought to trial on July 22. Quyet has been prosecuted for "fraud and asset appropriation" and "stock market manipulation".

Regarding the fraud and asset appropriation charge, the indictment says Quyet was the mastermind who made decisions to use Faros company as a tool to direct Doan Van Phuong, CEO of FLC, and his sister Trinh Thi Minh Hue, an accountant at the FLC Group, together with accomplices, to falsely inflate the stockholder equity to VND4.3 trillion.

Quyet also directed Faros to follow procedures to receive the State Securities Commission’s (SSC) recognition of Faros as a public company, which had ROS shares on HOSE (HCMC Stock Exchange).

Quyet also decided on bank share sales to investors’ for VND3.621 trillion to use for personal purposes.

Quyet has said he would voluntarily repay VND189 billion.

Regarding the aggrieved parties, the investigation agency has proven that 30,403 investors bought 391,155,480 ROS shares (the initial offering) with transactions carried out on HOSE, totaling VND4.818 trillion.

Faros’s real stockholder equity was just VND1.197 trillion, and the falsely reported stockholder equity VND3.102 trillion. As such, Quyet appropriated VND3.621 trillion from 30,403 investors.

These individuals spent money to buy ROS shares in the stock market, but they did not know that Quyet and his accomplices used tricks to falsely inflate the value of the shares, so they have been identified as victims in the case.

The investigation agency found that 133 of 30,403 victims held 628,090 initial shares (formed from falsely contributed capital) with total value (at the buying moment) of VND2.2 billion. 

As many as 95 of 133 victims have claimed compensation for damages as they held 381,670 shares valued at VND1.3 billion at the time of buying.

In a decision to bring the case to trial at the Hanoi People's Court signed by Judge Vu Quang Huy, the court determined that 63,092 investors holding ROS shares who have related rights and obligations and other individuals will be summoned by the court.

Regarding the stock market manipulation charge, the indictment says Quyet and his accomplices manipulated five shares (AMD, ART, HAI, GAB and FLC), thus resulting in an illegal profit of VND684 billion.

T. Nhung