The Scandal That Rocked Vietnam’s Economy: Trịnh Văn Quyết’s Stock Market Manipulation
Lê Giang wrote this Vietnamese article, published in Luật Khoa Magazine on April 4, 2025.
On March 29, 2022, a case that shook Vietnam’s stock market was finally indicted.
The Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security pressed charges and detained Trịnh Văn Quyết, Chairman of the FLC Group, following the decision to initiate Case No. 06/QD-VPCQCSĐT. At the same time, authorities also searched the homes and offices of the people involved in the scandal.
By manipulating “ghost” stocks with the help of officers at the City Stock Exchange HCM (HOSE), Trịnh Văn Quyết and his accomplices created a sophisticated fraud network that manipulated the stock market, causing heavy losses to thousands of investors.
Who is Trịnh Văn Quyết?
Born in 1975, Trịnh Văn Quyết —once considered one of Vietnam's “chaebol”—was a successful businessman in the securities and real estate sectors. He was also the founder and executive of FLC, a corporation known for its tourism projects in Quy Nhơn (Bình Định), Sầm Sơn (Thanh Hóa), Quảng Bình, and Hạ Long (Quảng Ninh).
He began his career as a tutor at the age of 14 and later worked at a mobile device resale business. Quyết eventually entered the fields of legal consulting, real estate, and financial investment.
In 2001, he founded the Investment Management and Supervision Consulting Joint Stock Company (SMic), which specializes in corporate, investment, and real estate law consulting.
In 2010, Quyết founded the FLC Group and quickly turned the business into a major player in the real estate and tourism industry. Under his leadership, he continued to expand the FLC's activities into other areas such as finance, investment, tourism, education, and even aviation. At its peak, FLC owned an ecosystem of more than 80 member companies, subsidiaries and affiliates, primarily focused on real estate, aviation (Bamboo Airways), securities, tourism, construction, and agriculture.
Among all of the FLC Group’s milestones, Bamboo Airways has been a representation of Quyết’s ambition to create a premium airline that competes directly with the big players in the aviation industry. He aimed to turn Bamboo Airways into Vietnam's first five-star airline by expanding international routes and providing high quality service.
Under Quyết’s leadership, Bamboo Airways quickly dominated the domestic market and expanded its reach to many international travel destinations. The airline later announced plans to add more modern aircraft to its growing fleet. At one point, many online aviation forums even suggested that Bamboo Airways had already surpassed Vietnam Airlines — the country’s national carrier.
Despite his great success, Trịnh Văn Quyết faces several allegations of financial manipulation and a lack of transparency in his business operations. His stock transactions attracted scrutiny and exhibited signs of fraud, particularly in raising the charter capital of the construction company Faros (ROS).
From two questionable stock sales...
On Jan. 5, 2022, Trịnh Văn Quyết registered the sale of 175 million FLC shares, equivalent to 24.6% of the company's total shares, with an estimated transaction value of 1,750 billion VND. Quyết claimed that this was done to restructure the asset portfolio. This transaction was planned to take place from Jan. 10, 2022 to Jan. 17, 2022, through a method of agreement or execution of orders on the stock market.
On the afternoon of Jan. 10, 2022, the State Securities Commission received report No. 31/SGDHCM-GS from HOSE, stating that Trịnh Văn Quyết bought 74.8 million FLC shares without notice and did not disclose this information before the transaction occurred.
Later in the evening, FLC's official website displayed a message about Trịnh Văn Quyết’s share trading. Although this announcement was published on January 10, the date was later changed to Jan. 5, 2022, in order to formalize the announcement of the sale to other shareholders.
On Jan. 18, 2022, the State Securities Commission issued Decision No. 34/QD-XPVPHC, imposing administrative sanctions on Quyết in the amount of 1.5 billion VND and suspending his securities trading activities for five months. This decision was made in accordance with the provisions of Decree No. 156/2020/ND-CP in 2020.
This is not the first time that Trịnh Văn Quyết has been found selling large amounts of shares.
In 2017, when FLC shares were trading at 7,100 to 7,700 VND/share, Quyết sold 57 million — equivalent to 9% of FLC's charter capital at the time — without reporting to the State Securities Commission and HOSE. The trading session lasted from Oct. 20, 2017 to Oct. 24, 2017, earning him approximately 400 billion VND.
After this incident, the State Securities Commission imposed a fine of 65 million VND to Quyết.
... to stock market manipulation
Stock prices usually vary depending on current market conditions. If the market perceives that a company has the potential to grow or that its stock is undervalued, investors will tend to buy in, creating upward pressure.
Conversely, if the market assesses that a business is struggling, growth prospects are poor, or the stock price has been overvalued, investors will tend to sell to preserve profits or cut losses. When the supply of stock is greater than the demand, the share price will fall.
Stock market manipulation refers to a series of deliberate transactions intended to skew the supply-and-demand dynamics of stocks, in order to generate artificial price movements from which manipulators can profit. Common methods of stock manipulation include insider trading, short orders, cross trading, or spreading fake news to influence investor sentiment.
However, the purpose of Trịnh Văn Quyết’s stock market manipulation was not to cause a discrepancy between the share price and the estimated value of the business, but to have the market completely dominated by Quyết and his accomplices; when the share price was pushed higher, they sold shares to other investment groups and made a profit.
In order to carry out this manipulation, Trịnh Văn Quyết directed Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ — his sister and the general accountant of FLC — to open 500 stock accounts at various securities companies to buy and resell five share codes belonging to the FLC ecosystem. These include: FLC Group Shares (code FLC), Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company Shares HAI (code HAI), FLC Stone Investment and Minerals Company Shares (code AMD), BOS Securities Company Shares (ART code), and FLC Mining and Asset Management Company Shares (code GAB).
In the span of around 500 trading days, from May 26, 2017 to Jan. 10, 2022, Huệ placed 27,230 share purchase orders (approx. 48.5 orders per day) and 11,978 share orders (approx. 21.3 orders per day).
It is important to note that these transactions were only internal to the FLC ecosystem and lacked the active participation of external investors; therefore, they do not properly reflect the real value of these companies.
To carry out this manipulation, Huệ, assisted by Trịnh Thị Thúy Nga, the third sister of Trịnh Văn Quyết and former deputy general manager of the BOS Securities, used 170,000 billion of “fake” coins issued by the BOS Securities Company. As a result, the value of five stocks — FLC, HAI, AMD, ART, and GAB — skyrocketed. These transactions accounted for most of the number of executed orders on the stock market at the time. Of the 562 manipulated transactions, there were between 11% and 66% of the number of open orders per session.
To avoid detection, Quyết's team initiated these transactions at the beginning and end of the trading day, from 9:00 to 9:30 and 14:30 to 15:00. As the share price pushed higher, Quyết's team began selling 1.34 billion shares to the market, collecting about 17,000 billion VND.
As a result, Trịnh Văn Quyết, with the assistance of his sisters, illegally gained an estimated 723 billion VND. This represents the total amount he and his accomplices defrauded investors of until 2022.
Backed by HOSE
Trịnh Văn Quyết and his accomplices would have had difficulty carrying out stock market manipulation if not for the FLC Faros Construction Joint Stock Company, a subsidiary of FLC and its backers from HOSE.
FLC Faros's predecessor was the Vĩnh Hà Infrastructure Investment and Construction Company, which was established in 2011 with an initial charter capital of 1.5 billion VND.
In April 2014, FLC Faros began to receive construction offers for large real estate projects for the FLC Group. Through these, Quyết directed his sister, Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ, to increase the charter capital for ROS by 4,300 billion VND through “ghost” capital contributions. The aim was to get this company on the stock exchange and turn FLC Faros into a public company with large capitalization.
To carry out the procedure for listing ROS shares, Quyết was assisted by the HOSE’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Trần Đắc Sinh, HOSE's General Director Lê Hải Trà, and several officers from HOSE and the Vietnam Securities Depository Center. These people assisted in formalizing the listing records, enabling ROS to be listed quickly.
On Sept. 1, 2016, FLC Faros officially listed its shares on HOSE with the stock code ROS and a reference price of 10,500 VND per share, for a total of 430 million.
In just under a year, ROS's share price increased to 20 times its original value, peaking at nearly 214,000 VND/share in November 2017, attracting retail investors. ROS's capitalization also increased significantly, ranking sixth on the HOSE exchange only after Vinamilk, Sabeco, Vingroup, Vietcombank, and Petrovietnam.
One specific individual greatly assisted Quyết in his stock market manipulation: Đoàn Văn Phương — Chairman of the FLC Faros Board of Directors.
From May 28, 2015 to Nov. 9, 2016, Phương directed FLC Faros employees and its leadership to engage in a series of fraudulent practices aimed at inflating the company's charter capital.
Under Phương's direction, FLC Faros continuously issued resolutions on charter capital increases, despite the fact that capital contributions have no real cash flow. At the same time, Phương signed the short capital contribution and carried out the procedure to list 430 million ROS shares to HOSE, raising the company's charter capital to 4,300 billion VND.
Authorities also accused Phương of signing 18 cash withdrawals, enabling Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ to withdraw 900 billion VND from Faros' account, sign 12 spending proxies, and transfer 296.5 billion VND from the account of Bình Định Development Investment Joint Stock Company FLC to other individuals. These transactions were done to generate fake cash flows, successfully creating virtual debt on FLC Faros’ accounting books.
The purpose of this whole charade was to use financial figures as legal cover for manipulating share prices and defrauding investors. As a result, Trịnh Văn Quyết and his accomplices could sell shares created from artificially raised capital, thereby misappropriating thousands of billions of VND from investors.
The Case and Detention of Trịnh Văn Quyết
On the evening of March 27, 2022, various social networks announced that Trịnh Văn Quyết had been banned from leaving the country. Rumors started to spread that he was under investigation for several issues related to the FLC Group's business activities.
On March 29, 2022, the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security (“C01”) filed a criminal case and prosecuted Trịnh Văn Quyết for “stock market manipulation” and “the concealment of information in securities activities,” as stipulated in Articles 209 and 211 of the 2015 Penal Code.
On April 2, 2022, C01 issued another decision to prosecute and detain Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ, stating that she was complicit in Trịnh Văn Quyết’s stock market manipulation.
On April 4, 2022, C01 also detained Trịnh Thị Thúy Nga for assisting Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ in his crimes.
On August 25, 2022, C01 filed additional charges, extending the charges to include the “fraudulent misappropriation of assets” committed in the FLC Faros Company and other related entities, under Article 174 of the 2015 Penal Code.
In addition to Quyết and his two sisters, Hương Trần Kiều Dung — the permanent vice chairman of the FLC Group Board of Directors and chairman of the Board of Directors of BOS Securities Joint Stock Company — was also indicted.
The Prosecution of Trịnh Văn Quyết
On April 8, 2024, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued an indictment against Trịnh Văn Quyết and 49 others.
The individuals charged with “stock market manipulation” and the “fraudulent appropriation of assets,” under Articles 209 and 174 of the 2015 Penal Code, include:
- Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ, Officer of FLC Group Accounting Department (Quyết's sister);
- Trịnh Thị Thúy Nga, Deputy General Director of BOS Securities Company (Quyết's sister);
- Hương Trần Kiều Dung, permanent vice chairman of the FLC Group Board of Directors;
- Trịnh Văn Đài, deputy director general of FLC Faros (Quyết's cousin);
- Nguyễn Văn Mạnh, head of landscape supplies and shopping department of FLC Land Co., Ltd. (Quyết’s brother-in-law and Trịnh Thị Thúy Nga’s husband);
- Trịnh Tuấn, director of FLC Land Company (Quyết’s nephew);
- Nguyễn Thị Hồng Dung, freelance worker (Nguyễn Quang Trung’s wife, also Quyết’s relative).
The individuals indicted for “abuse of authority while performing public office,” under Article 356 of the Criminal Code 2015, include:
- Trần Đắc Sinh, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of HOSE;
- Lê Hải Trà, former deputy general director of HOSE and a member of the HOSE Listing Board;
- Tống Tuấn Vũ, former deputy general director of HOSE, vice chairman of the HOSE Listing Board;
- Lê Thị Tuyết Hằng, director of Listing Management and Appraisal Department, a member of the HOSE Listing Board.
The individuals charged with “publishing false information or concealing information in securities activities,” under Article 209 of the Criminal Code 2015, include:
- Lê Công Điền, former Head of Public Company Supervision of the State Securities Commission;
- Dương Văn Thành, former general director of Vietnam Securities Depository Center;
- Phạm Trung Minh, former head of the Securities Registry Department of the Vietnam Securities Depository Center.
In addition to the people above, 13 others — including several of Trịnh Văn Quyết’s relatives — were also indicted by the Supreme Procuracy for stock market manipulation. The remaining 22 were also charged with the fraudulent misappropriation of assets.
The First Instance Trial
On July 22, 2024, the People's Court in Hà Nội opened the first-instance trial for Trịnh Văn Quyết and the 49 other defendants in the criminal case against the FLC Group and related companies.
Representatives of the Supreme Procuracy argued that Trịnh Văn Quyết was the mastermind behind the scheme and directed the financial activities of the 82 companies in FLC's system, including the FLC Group, FLC Faros, BOS Securities Joint Stock Company, and other subsidiaries.
The defendants were also accused of raising the charter capital of FLC Faros from 1.5 billion VND to 4,300 billion VND through the application of short capital contributions, the falsification of financial records for listing ROS shares on the HOSE exchange, the issuance of 391 million ROS shares to more than 30,400 investors, and the misappropriation of trillions of VND.
The trial also brought to light the actions of Trịnh Văn Quyết’s accomplices:
Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ: Artificially raising FLC Faros’ capital, organizing virtual cash flow, coordinating the sale of shares, and transferring money back to Trịnh Văn Quyết
Đoàn Văn Phương: Signing capital increase requests, falsifying financial data, and allowing the listing of ROS shares. Phương has also fled the country and is now an international fugitive
Trịnh Thị Thúy Nga: Signing an investment trust contract, transferring money, falsifying the amount of contributed capital, and opening a stock account to manipulate the ROS share price
Hương Trần Kiều Dung: Signing the share transfer contract, assisting in the listing registration, and helping Trịnh Văn Quyết extort money from investors
The Supreme Procuracy determined that Trịnh Văn Quyết and his accomplices committed systematic fraud and manipulated the stock market for personal gain. Their actions have destabilized Vietnam’s entire economic system and caused significant damage to investors and the country’s financial markets.
On March 8, 2024, the Hanoi People’s Court sentenced Trịnh Văn Quyết and 49 his accomplices to the following:
Criminal liability:
Trịnh Văn Quyết: 21 years imprisonment — 3 for securities manipulation and 18 for fraud and the misappropriation of assets
Trịnh Thị Minh Huệ: 14 years imprisonment for fraud and the misappropriation of property
Trịnh Thị Thúy Nga: 8 years imprisonment for the fraudulent misappropriation of property
Hương Trần Kiều Dung: 8 years and 6 months imprisonment for the fraudulent misappropriation of property
Trịnh Văn Đài: 11 years imprisonment for fraud and the misappropriation of property
Trần Đắc Sinh: 6 years and 6 months imprisonment for abuse of authority.
Lê Hải Trà: 5 years imprisonment for abuse of office
Tống Tuấn Vũ: 5 years and 6 months imprisonment for abuse of office
Lê Thị Tuyết Hằng: 30 months in prison for abuse of office
Lê Công Điền: 36 months in prison for publishing false information
The remaining 41 defendants were given punishments ranging from 15 months suspension to 7 years and 6 months imprisonment, depending on the charges.
Civil Liability:
For the misappropriation of assets, Trịnh Văn Quyết and his accomplices must pay the victims 1,785 billion VND. As of July 26, 2024, the defendants had paid 264 billion VND.
For stock market manipulation, the defendants must pay an additional 684 billion VND.
Trịnh Văn Quyết has proposed using all his personal property to fulfill all civil liabilities.
After the first instance trial, Quyết's wife also voluntarily paid 203 billion VND in compensation. By Dec. 19, 2024, the amount given by the defendants had exceeded 600 billion VND.
Quyết later filed an appeal, asking for leniency and a reduction in compensation.
The Appellate Hearings
On Dec. 26, 2024, the Supreme People’s Court in Hanoi opened the appeal trial of Trịnh Văn Quyết and 49 other defendants in the criminal case. However, as of 9:30 a.m. that day, Quyết had yet to appear in court.
Quyết and his lawyers filed a motion to postpone the trial, citing his ongoing treatment for tuberculosis at Hospital 198 (Hanoi). Colonel Hoàng Xuân Quang, a representative of the T16 Detention Camp, confirmed this information.
Both Quyết and the other defendants, along with their lawyers, agreed to adjourn the trial when consulting the presiding judge. The People’s Procuracy also agreed to postpone the hearing so that the defendants will have more time to fulfill their civil liabilities.
On March 25, 2025, the second appeal hearing was opened. However, Trịnh Văn Quyết was once again absent because his illness had become serious, with a high risk of death. Quyết's lawyers suggested postponing the trial for a third time to give his family more time to compensate the victims.
The court decided to postpone the second appeal hearing and is expected to reopen it in June 2025.
To date, the family of Trịnh Văn Quyết has given the government 1,000 billion VND in compensation for his crimes.
The Fate of Bamboo Airways
After Trịnh Văn Quyết was arrested, Bamboo Airways declined. Once praised for its exceptional service, professionalism, and affordability, the airline faced mounting debt, severe staffing issues, and flight cuts—most evident in the changes to senior staff and the drastic reduction of both domestic and international flights.
In terms of personnel, Đặng Tất Thắng, the former vice chairman of the FLC Group and the CEO of Bamboo Airways, was assigned to serve as Chairman of the Board of Bamboo Airways shortly after Quyết’s arrest. However, Thắng left office after only a few months in July 2022.
In 2022 and 2023, the company underwent several leadership changes — ranging from Nguyễn Ngọc Trọng to Oshima Hideki, a Japanese executive appointed on a short-term basis, and later to Lê Thái Sâm, an investor and major creditor of FLC.
By the beginning of 2024, Bamboo Airways' leadership gradually stabilized. On Feb. 5, 2024, the airline appointed Phan Đình Tuệ — the former deputy general manager of Sacombank — as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Tuệ has been a member of the Bamboo Airways Board of Directors since June 2023 and is expected to accelerate the restructuring process thanks to his 40 years of experience in the financial and banking industry.
In October 2023, Bamboo Airways also invited a veteran aviation expert, Lương Hoài Nam, to return as general manager to spearhead the company's comprehensive restructuring.
Under new and improved leadership, Bamboo Airways was able to save itself from the brink of bankruptcy.
Regarding the flight cuts, according to Dân Trí Newspaper, Bamboo Airways's number of flights operated on both domestic and international routes has fallen sharply, from 52,000 in 2022 to 38,600 in 2023.
From late 2022 to early 2023, Bamboo Airways also ended long-haul flights to Europe and Australia as it stopped operating its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.
In October 2023, Bamboo Airways announced that it would suspend its international flight network and focus on restructuring. The airline cancelled several of its flights to Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
From the end of 2023, the airline had to make a series of “reluctant” decisions to reduce the frequency or suspend low-efficiency flights in domestic areas, such as in Hà Nội, Hồ Chí Minh City, and Phú Quốc.
From April 2024, Bamboo Airways also stopped operating routes from Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City that pass through Côn Đảo, while suspending some trips on the Hà Nội-Huế and Hà Nội-Đồng Hới routes.
Despite rumors of imminent bankruptcy, Bamboo Airways executives insist that the airline has not filed for bankruptcy and that the speculation is unfounded.
Responding to VnExpress, Bamboo Airways' CEO Lương Hoài Nam said that thanks to cost-cutting solutions and operational adjustments, the airline's 2023 operating loss has been reduced three times compared to before the restructuring. The CEO also expects that the company will break even by the end of 2024 if fuel prices stabilize.
Bamboo Airways aims to gradually expand its fleet. It is expected to increase the number of aircraft to 12 by the end of 2024 and 18 by 2025. From there, the airline will restore its domestic flight network and gradually reopen international routes.
On Oct. 27, 2024, Bamboo Airways relaunched flights between Hồ Chí Minh City and Đà Lạt, with a frequency of one round trip per day. The airline has also reopened some international routes, such as the Taipei-Phú Quốc and Kaohsiung-Phú Quốc.
The Vietnamese Magazine will continue to provide updates on the progress of this criminal case.