FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet to be heavily fined for negligence to publicly report stocks sale

Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of FLC Group

According to the latest announcement from HSX, the stock exchange's decision was taken following instructions from the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC).

The cancellation was imposed because Quyet neglected to publicly declare the sale of his stakes in FLC Group.

The paperwork for the sale was only completed at 5:45pm Monday, January 10, 2022, three hours after the trading session ended at the HSX, where FLC is listed.

By that time, Quyet had already sold his stakes in the company.

The Vietnamese legal framework highlights that major shareholders are required to notify the SSC in advance of any proposed stock transactions under the terms of the statute.

The HSX also noted that Quyet intended to sell 175 million FLC shares, thus reducing his stake in FLC Group from 30.34 per cent to 5.7 per cent. Although the announcement was made on January 5, the SSC said that it received the anticipated transaction report late on January 10.

Between January 5-10, neither the FLC Group nor the HSX website included any information on the trade, according to media reports.

FLC ended Monday at the floor price of VND21,150 ($0.93) with 134.96 million shares traded, the biggest volume since the company's 2013 debut on the HSX.

During the session, the price also reached a new high of VND24,100 apiece ($1.04)

Quyet's 74.8 million shares would have fetched VND1.8 trillion ($79.28 million) at that price.

FLC has more than doubled in value since September, an increase of 363 per cent since January of last year.

The convert sell-off has labelled Quyet as a “fraudster” on many social media platforms in Vietnam.

Other FLC-related equities, such as ROS of FLC Faros, GAB of FLC Mining Investment & Asset Management JSC, and HAI of HAI Agrochem Jsc, all fell precipitously in the same trading session on January 11.

In the latest initiative, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said that the authorities would annul Quyet's January 10 transaction of 74.8 million FLC shares. Simultaneously, Quyet would hold the heaviest penalty, cited local media.

Investors who previously purchased Quyet’s FLC shares on January 10 would not receive any shares or have their accounts debited. And vice versa, Quyet would retain his shares but will not make any profit.

Trinh Van Quyet graduated from Hanoi Law University, one of the country's top-tier schools.