Vietnam: Billionaire tycoon gets 21-year sentence for fraud

Vietnamese airline and real estate tycoon Trinh Van Quyet was sentenced to 21 years in prison by the Hanoi People's Court on Monday.

He was found guilty of defrauding stockholders to the tune of $144 million (roughly €131 million) by inflating the value of one of his companies.

The guilty verdict followed Quyet's two-week trial alongside 49 other accomplices, according to state-run VN Express news.

Quyet, 48, was well-known in Vietnam for owning discount airline Bamboo Airways and FLC Group, which had a wide array of real estate holdings such as hotels, resorts, and golf courses.

The defendants were found guilty of fraudulently exaggerating the value of FLC subsidiary FLC Faros shortly before it went public in 2016.

According to the indictment, the company sold 391 million shares to some 30,000 investors, effectively defrauding them of 3.6 trillion Vietnamese dong ($144 million).

Some of Quyet's co-accused include officials who approved of the scheme despite knowing the figures being presented to investors were false. This included Tran Dac Sinh, the former chairman of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. Sinh was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.

The sentences for the other defendants ranged from jail terms to probation.

Decade-long anti-corruption crusade

Quyet's 2022 arrest came as part of a decade-long anti-corruption crusade by Vietnam's Communist Party known as Blazing Furnace.

In April, another real estate mogul was sentenced to death for masterminding the country's largest ever financial fraud case. Truong My Lan was one of Vietnam's most important businesspeople for years before being convicted of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion.

After decades of impunity, since 2016 thousands of Communist Party officials have been disciplined over corruption claims and eight members of the powerful Politburo have been ousted.

It is unknown if Quyet will attempt to appeal his verdict.

es/rmt (AP, AFP)