Where does Ms. Ho Thi Kim Thoa's huge fortune come from?

The value of DQC and RDP shares owned by the family of Ms. Ho Thi Kim Thoa - Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade on the stock exchange, is estimated to be nearly 1,000 billion VND, of which Ms. Thoa is the owner of 78 billion VND. Regarding the huge assets of Ms. Thoa's family, the public wants to know: How did Ms. Thoa and her family get that amount of assets? Is this way of making money of Ms. Thoa and her family legal? Where did that amount of assets come from?

Ms. Ho Thi Kim Thoa

Huge assets of nearly a thousand billion VND

Looking back at the starting point of Mrs. Thoa's family, the entire family of her father, mother, Mrs. Thoa herself, her two younger siblings and her two children are all civil servants, public employees, and students who grew up in State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Through research, Mrs. Thoa's whole family comes from civil servants, before the time of being the leader of Dien Quang Electric Bulb Company (hereinafter referred to as Dien Quang Company), there was no large assets, this huge amount of assets for a civil servant family like Mrs. Thoa, was only formed during the time of holding power.

In April 2000, when she was the General Director of Dien Quang Company, Ms. Thoa directly carried out the equitization process of Dien Quang Company. On December 31, 2003, the book value for equitization of Dien Quang Company was 245 billion VND. But according to Decision No. 127 dated November 10, 2004 signed by Deputy Minister of Industry Bui Xuan Khu, Dien Quang Company was converted into Dien Quang Lamp Joint Stock Company (DQC), the charter capital was only 23.5 billion; at the same time, Dien Quang Company was also allowed to erase the business loss of over 28 billion VND to carry out equitization.

In February 2005, Dien Quang Joint Stock Company, Ms. Ho Kim Thoa held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of DQC. The number of shares Ms. Thoa held increased over the years: 2007: 670,000 shares, worth 6.7 billion VND; 2008: 736,420 shares, worth 12.15 billion VND; 2009: 858,000 shares, worth 33 billion VND; 2010, when holding the position of Deputy Minister: 1,160,000 shares, worth 45 billion VND; 2016: 1,686,415 shares, worth 100 billion VND. In addition, Ms. Thoa also holds 7,919 shares at Rang Dong Plastic Joint Stock Company (RDP).

DQC shares have fallen sharply since the beginning of 2017, causing the assets converted into shares of Ms. Ho Thi Kim Thoa's family to "evaporate" millions of USD.

During her tenure at DQC, Ms. Thoa used tricks and tactics to increase her shares by: paying dividends in shares or bonus shares, and buying hundreds of thousands of shares in trading sessions on the stock exchange. For example: on August 13, 2008, she bought 200,000 more DQC shares, on November 11, 2008, she bought 62,200 more DCQ shares.

Regarding this issue, the authorities have pointed out that Ms. Thoa bought shares exceeding the prescribed level; transferred shares not in accordance with the Company's charter.

Or the notable share transfer at Dien Quang. On September 15, 2014, the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) announced that it had sold all 3.9 million shares for VND179 billion and completed the divestment at DQC.

State assets are "magically transformed" into "family assets"

In particular, the divestment process was conducted by agreement, not by public auction. Notably, the individual who bought back 1,170,000 DQC shares out of a total of 3.9 million shares from SCIC was Mr. Ho Duc Dung, son of Mr. Ho Duc Lam, brother of Mr. Ho Quynh Hung - Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Dien Quang at that time and up to now. Mr. Hung personally held a total of 597,792 DQC shares at that time.

Relatives of the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade own nearly 35% of the charter capital at Dien Quang Light Bulb Company.

Exactly one year later, on September 15, 2015, Mr. Ho Duc Dung sold 1.5 million DQC shares for a total of VND 83.25 billion. At the same time, according to information from HOSE, Mr. Ho Quynh Hung also registered to buy the same 1.5 million shares by negotiation. After this transaction, Mr. Hung's DQC share holding ratio increased to 2,289,085 shares, equivalent to 7.1% of DQC's charter capital.

The eldest daughter, Nguyen Thai Nga, started working in 2012 and in 2012 owned 1,787,343 shares. Mrs. Thoa's second daughter, Nguyen Thai Quynh Le, in 2012, while still studying abroad, also bought 1,316,590 DQC shares. At RDP, Mr. Ho Duc Lam, Mrs. Thoa's younger brother, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director, currently holding 16,417,686 million shares, accounting for 64.74% of RDP's charter capital; Ho Phi Hai - Mr. Ho Duc Lam's son holds 1,129,802 shares, accounting for 4.94% of RDP's charter capital.

In particular, when SCIC divested State capital at RDP in July 2015 through a transaction conducted by negotiation, Mr. Lam spent 115 billion VND to buy all 5,770,000 shares, increasing the share holding ratio from 24.26% to 64.74% of RDP's charter capital.

Thus, the stock assets alone that Ms. Thoa's family group has in the 2 companies that were originally state-owned enterprises and now converted to joint stock companies are worth about 1,000 billion VND. These assets were formed when family members were assigned by the State to carry out the equitization process and represent state capital after equitization.

The issue here is to review and trace the origin of Ms. Thoa's family's money during the transaction to acquire DQC and RDP shares.

According to Lao Dong Newspaper