‘I never intended to steal from investors’: FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet

Among the 50 accused, Quyet was questioned last by the judges as he was taken out of the court when the others were giving their testimonies.

He is being tried for fraudulent appropriation of assets by ballooning the capital of Faros Construction by thousands of times, and for stock manipulation by buying back and forth the shares of FLC and several other affiliated companies to push up their prices.

Throughout seven minutes of questioning, Quyet more than 10 times responded “I do not recall, but I respect the description of the crime in the indictment.”

The 49-year-old admitted that he ordered FLC CEO Doan Van Phuong to buy a company called Green Belt and changed its name into Faros Construction, and eventually ballooned its capital from VND1.5 billion to VND4.3 trillion ($59,000 to $170 million) on paper.

“I never intended to steal money from investors,” he said in response to a question about his motive.

Quyet said that he had high expectations on Faros and wanted to make it the builder of all FLC’s property projects.

“I even wanted the company to handle outside projects if it was capable. By the time I was arrested, I had successfully carried out my idea.”

The judges, however, stopped him from speaking as he was not answering their question directly.

Quyet also said that he did not remember how much money was sent to his account in the ballooning of Faros’ capital, but he agreed with the indictment.

Carrying out Quyet’s orders

Quyet’s sister Trinh Thi Minh Hue, also charged with fraudulent appropriation of assets and stock manipulation, told the court that she only carried out his order.

“I am very remorseful. I hope to receive a reduced sentence because I only followed my brother’s instructions and did not benefit from it.”

Hue claimed that she borrowed the ID cards of many people and made different bank transfers under their names to balloon Faros’ capital.

She said that Quyet gave her a handwritten list of names, each with a number of shares. She typed it on her computer and titled it “Shareholders of Faros” before giving it to her brother.

Once Faros was listed on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, she would make selling and buying orders whenever Quyet told her to.

Prosecutors said that Hue borrowed the ID cards of friends and family to register 20 companies and 500 stock trading accounts.

“At the beginning of the day Quyet would pick a number of stock accounts to carry out transactions and I would carry out his order.”

Another sister of Quyet, Trinh Thi Thuy Nga, an accountant of FLC, and FLC deputy CEO Huong Tran Kieu Dung, both told the court that they only followed Quyet’s orders.

At the ongoing trial Quyet is accused of masterminding a scheme to falsely represent FLC Faros’ capital as VND4.3 trillion instead of the actual VND1.5 billion to enable its listing on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.

HoSE executives approved the listing despite not being to able to confirm if the company had VND4.3 trillion in capital.

Investors, taken in by this, bought the 391 million shares that were listed. Quyet earned VND3.62 trillion from this.

Quyet is also accused of instructing his sister Hue to open 500 stock accounts under the names of 45 associates and used them to trade back and forth the stocks of FLC and its four subsidiaries.

He made illegal gains of VND723 billion from this.