On March 19, Tan Hoang Minh's chairman and his son are scheduled to face trial for allegedly committing a $349 million fraud

Chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh, Do Anh Dung, and his son Do Hoang Viet will stand trial on March 19 for fraudulent bond issuance, with the intention of appropriating over VND8.6 trillion ($349 million). The trial will be held at the People’s Court of Hanoi, nearly two years after Dung's arrest, and is expected to last at least 20 days.

A team of nearly 30 lawyers will participate in the trial, with Dung and his son each having one representing them.

Dung and Viet, who is the deputy CEO of Tan Hoang Minh Group, along with 13 other defendants, are charged with fraudulent appropriation of assets by the Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam.

Image of Tan Hoang Minh

The court will also summon the victims – the investors who purchased the fraudulent bonds.

According to investigators, as of January 2022, Tan Hoang Minh owed the bank nearly VND20 trillion, not including the eight bond packages issued since 2021.

To address the situation, Dung instructed his son Viet to raise capital for the corporation through the issuance of private bonds.

The defendants did not utilize Tan Hoang Minh's legal status, but instead its subsidiary firms to issue these bonds. To attract buyers, they opted for secured, non-convertible bonds without warranty.

Tan Hoang Minh aimed to mobilize and appropriate money from investors, most of whom were civilians, to bypass regulations that only permit firms to sell privately issued bonds to professional investors.

Dung also directed his subordinates to fabricate non-existent economic activities using three subsidiaries: Ngoi Sao Viet, Soleil, and Cung Dien Mua Dong.

The defendants collaborated with two audit firms to manipulate their financial reports to meet the requirements for bond issuance.

Through this scheme, the three companies issued nine separate bond packages, totaling just over VND10 trillion.

Dung instructed staff to transfer money between bank accounts to falsely record that Tan Hoang Minh had purchased the bonds issued by its subsidiary companies, even though the company never fully paid for the bonds.

Tan Hoang Minh then sold the bonds to investors, managing to mobilize around VND14 trillion from bond buyers.

In April 2022, when the case was prosecuted, Tan Hoang Minh used over VND5 trillion from later bond buyers to pay off earlier bond purchasers.

The remaining VND8.6 trillion, taken from 6,630 people, was misappropriated by Tan Hoang Minh, according to investigators.

During the investigation, Dung surrendered all the money he was accused of misappropriating to the authorities.