Vietnamese billionaire who defrauded stockholders out of US$150 million, sentenced to 21 years

A prominent Vietnamese business tycoon was found guilty on Monday of defrauding stockholders of nearly US$150 million by falsely inflating the value of his company, in a case that comes as the government cracks down on widespread corruption in the country.

The Hanoi People’s Court sentenced Trinh Van Quyet, 48, to 21 years in prison after a two-week trial that included 49 defendants who were named as accomplices, state-run VN Express reported. He was arrested in 2022.

The billionaire was the chairman and founder of the FLC Group, which owns the discount Bamboo Airways and has broad real estate holdings including hotels, resorts and golf courses, among other assets.

According to the indictment, Quyet fraudulently inflated the value of the group’s general contractor subsidiary, FLC Faros, by reporting fictitious capital contributions, before taking the company public in 2016.

In the initial public offering, the company sold some 391 million shares to about 30,000 investors, defrauding them of 3.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (about US$144 million) according to the indictment. Among Quyet’s co-defendants were officials from Vietnam’s State Securities Commission and Securities Depository Center, who were accused of being complicit in the scheme by approving and facilitating the initial public offering despite knowing of discrepancies in the figures.

Details on the verdicts for the co-defendants were not immediately released.

Quyet was arrested in 2022, as part of a crackdown on corruption instituted by Vietnamese authorities. The Communist Party’s Blazing Furnace campaign began in 2013, but it wasn’t until 2018 that authorities began scanning the private sector. Since then, several owners of Vietnam’s fast-growing businesses have been