Court jails Vietnamese tycoon for 21 years for $146 mn fraud: state media

HANOI - A former Vietnamese property and aviation tycoon was jailed for 21 years on Monday for fraud and stock market manipulation worth $146 million, state media said.

Trinh Van Quyet was among 50 defendants found guilty in what is the latest corruption case targeting the communist country's business elite.

A Hanoi court said Quyet, who owned the FLC empire of luxury resorts, golf courses and budget carrier Bamboo Airways, was given the heaviest sentence because he was the leader of the scam.

"Through the stock market, the defendants proceeded with fraudulence... leading to mistrust for investors and the stock market, causing anger in society," the Hanoi People's Court said in its verdict quoted by the Tuoi Tre newspaper.

"Therefore relevant punishments are required."

The 49 others, including two of Quyet's sisters and four stock exchange officials, were given between 14 years in jail and a 15-month suspended sentence.

They were charged with fraud, stock market manipulation, abuse of power and publishing incorrect stock market information.

According to the prosecution indictment, Quyet set up several stock market brokerages and registered dozens of family members to, ostensibly, trade shares.

But police said while orders to buy shares were placed in hundreds of trading sessions -- pushing up the value of the stock -- they were cancelled before being matched.

The court said Quyet had illegally pocketed more than $146 million between 2017 and 2022.

There were 25,000 victims of the fraud, the court added.

One stock trader from Hanoi, who identified himself only as Trung, told AFP he lost close to $8,000 after investing in stocks related to the FLC group.

"What Quyet and others have done, manipulating the stock market, must be duly punished," he said.

"I had to accept my losses, and I have tried to learn from this to help my future trading."

'WILL HAUNT ME'

In his final words before the court, Quyet said he had dreamed of changing the lives of ordinary Vietnamese by building resorts and housing that would transform communities.

This led him to "do things that were not within the law".

"What I did will haunt me my whole life," Quyet said, according to the VnExpress news site.

The court acknowledged that the FLC group had developed and invested in many projects in remote and poor areas, creating thousands of jobs and contributing to economic development.

The trial began on July 22 and involved 100 lawyers.

The case is part of a national corruption crackdown that has swept up numerous officials and members of Vietnam's business elite in recent years.

In April, a top Vietnamese property tycoon was sentenced to death in a $27 billion fraud case. She has launched an appeal against her conviction.

Later that month, the head of one of Vietnam's top soft drinks companies was jailed for eight years in a $40 million fraud case.