Loopholes and Greed

Trinh Van Quyet, from the dignified image of a “successful businessman”, is increasingly revealing his cunning true form after each layer of truth is gradually peeled away. On the side of the State Securities Commission, there are also untrustworthy individuals.

As we know, Trinh Van Quyet (born in 1975 in Vinh Thinh commune, Vinh Tuong district, Vinh Phuc province) is an extremely famous businessman. According to "legend", right from his university years, he showed his "business qualities". He started his business career by opening one of the tutoring offices and then selling phones, basically a simple start! After a period of accumulating knowledge and experience, in 2010 he established FLC Group Joint Stock Company, officially making his mark with a series of resort real estate projects in provinces and cities stretching from North to South. At that time, it was true that wherever Mr. Quyet's FLC went, the real estate market was bustling. Not only stopping at the real estate sector, in 2017, Mr. Quyet officially submitted an application to the management agency for a license to establish Bamboo Airways. Then Bamboo Airways took off its first flight in early 2019.

Illustration: Document

However, although the image of a successful young businessman is still fluttering here and there on media channels, although the capital market management agencies are still "silent", netizens have speculated about many "clinical" manifestations of Mr. Quyet, at least in the stock market. Abnormalities in stock prices and huge transactions are all "read" by netizens. But the strange thing is that specialized management agencies, the ones assigned with monitoring tools as well as the power to handle, only make penalty decisions that netizens compare to "mosquitoes biting stainless steel". Trust in the stock market is thus eroded, while the ghost of "trading teams" is still lurking somewhere, ready to "steal" money from genuine investors.

In November 2017, Mr. Quyet was fined by the Securities Commission for administrative violations related to the sale of 57 million FLC shares without reporting or disclosing information. It is estimated that this transaction brought Mr. Quyet over 400 billion VND. This was also the period when FLC shares recorded a sudden increase in liquidity with tens of millions of units/session. After this period, the market price of FLC dropped rapidly to around 5,700 VND/share. Notably, Mr. Quyet's illegal sale was later only fined for administrative violations with an amount of 65 million VND. At the same time, FLC Faros Construction Joint Stock Company (ROS), of which Mr. Quyet was Chairman of the Board of Directors (at that time), was also fined for the same act of illegally selling more than 13.69 million AMD shares of AMD Group Investment and Minerals Joint Stock Company (now FLC Stone Investment and Minerals Joint Stock Company). In particular, the transaction of FLC Faros was conducted on October 20-24, 2017, estimated to earn 136 billion VND according to the market price of AMD shares. However, the amount of money that this company was fined was only 130 million VND. Anyone who knows how to subtract may find this form of "strict punishment" ridiculous.

The last straw, what had to happen, happened. On March 29, 2022, the Investigation Police Agency initiated a case, prosecuted the accused; and temporarily detained this "talented and... scandalous" businessman! Not only that, the investigation agency also temporarily detained Trinh Thi Minh Hue and Trinh Thi Thuy Nga, both of whom are Trinh Van Quyet's younger sisters and were both arrested as accomplices. Everything has now been exposed: from September 1, 2016 to January 10, 2022, Trinh Van Quyet directed his younger sister Trinh Thi Minh Hue to contact individuals related to his family and relatives to establish 20 companies; at the same time, he borrowed and used the ID cards of 26 relatives to open a total of 450 securities accounts to manipulate the market. A terrifying number!

The strangest thing about this case is: everyone understands, only... the Securities Commission... doesn't understand! Of course, the fight against corruption and negativity does not allow anyone to stand outside of responsibility. The Central Inspection Committee has stepped in and concluded: The Party Committee of the State Securities Commission violated the principle of democratic centralism and the Working Regulations; lacked responsibility, slackened leadership, direction, lacked inspection and supervision, allowing a number of organizations and individuals under the State Securities Commission to commit many violations and shortcomings in advising on the development of institutions, policies and implementing State management of securities activities and the securities market, allowing a number of organizations and individuals to violate the law, manipulate the market, and make illegal profits.

At the 15th session, the Central Inspection Committee decided to issue a warning to the Party Committee of the State Securities Commission for the 2015-2020 and 2020-2025 terms. Remove all Party positions for Mr. Tran Van Dung - Chairman of the State Securities Commission. Issue a warning to Mr. Vu Bang - former Chairman of the State Securities Commission; Nguyen Thanh Long - Member of the Party Executive Committee of the Ministry of Finance, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Hanoi Stock Exchange, Chairman of the Board of Members of the Vietnam Stock Exchange; Nguyen Son - Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Securities Depository.

The Central Inspection Committee also decided to expel from the Party Mr. Le Hai Tra - General Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange. It must also be said that the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange is the place where Mr. Trinh Van Quyet once "made waves" in the market.

Well, let's put aside the headache of the world this weekend and come to another entertaining story: It is said that in a certain country, there was a man who suddenly lost his sense of smell. When he was sick, he prayed to all directions, and that poor smell-blind man was desperate to find a cure. When his despair reached its peak, he sought the help of a skilled shaman. After three weeks of incense and seven weeks of water, the shaman brought a spoonful of fish sauce to the patient's nose and asked, "Do you smell anything?" The man sadly shook his head. The shaman patiently brought a cup of To Lich river water to the patient's nose, "Do you smell anything?" The poor man once again sadly shook his head. The shaman exclaimed, "You still can't recognize the characteristic smells, so the illness is incurable." After saying that, he humorously grabbed the envelope next to him and brought it to the patient's nose: "Do you smell anything?" The man struggled and shouted: “Yes, yes sir, I smell money!”

Of course it's a lie, money has no flavor! And to smell the flavor of money, you probably have to create... a loophole! If you don't believe me, just ask the people involved in the stock market manipulation case!