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 Trinh Van 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 Trinh Van 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, Trinh Van 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 Trinh Van Quyet had illegally pocketed more than $146 million between 2017 and 20.