Legal proceedings launched against 7 citizens for stock market manipulation

Legal proceedings have been launched against 42-year-old Tran Binh Minh and six others for stock market manipulation in the trading of CMS shares of Hanoi-based CMH Vietnam Group JSC.

The six others are Nguyen Hoang Thi, Le Xuan Cao, Phung Tien Thanh, Ha Duc Dat, Tran Ngoc Son, and Tran Ba Tuan.

They allegedly inflated the stock prices and then sold off their holdings, impacting supply and demand and causing significant fluctuations in stock prices, the investigative agency stated on Friday.

According to initial investigations, Minh led a scheme from May to October 2023, encouraging many people to buy and sell CMS shares. His group reportedly purchased the stock at low prices, artificially inflated the price, and then sold them, making illegal profits exceeding VND10 billion ($402,000).

To execute this scheme, Minh and his associates created groups on Zalo and Telegram to promote various stock codes and provide trading advice on them, including CMS. This manipulation influenced investor decisions and affected the price movements of CMS.

The investigation found that Minh's group gained trust by occasionally announcing CMS stock prices in advance, which mirrored actual market movements in some trading sessions.

When CMS prices peaked in September 2023, Minh’s group sold off a large number of shares for profit, leading to investor losses due to their manipulation, undermining market transparency.

The defendants used multiple securities accounts to buy, hold, and manipulate CMS prices, the investigators said.

The State Securities Commission has reported that from May to October 2023, these accounts accounted for a significant portion of CMS trading, making the transactions suspicious.

Checks of securities and bank accounts revealed that Minh’s group earned over VND10 billion ($402,000) from CMS trades during this period, with Minh’s account alone yielding more than VND5.5 billion ($221,100).

Hanoi police have asked anyone who purchased CMS shares between May 4 and October 31, 2023 to contact the Economic Police Department at 54 Tran Hung Dao, Hang Bai ward, Hanoi's Hoan Kiem district.