Vietnam started prosecuting its first case of securities fraud since the country’s stock exchange opened a decade ago with the arrest of Le Van Dung, chairman of Vien Dong Pharma Joint-Stock Co.
Criminal proceedings against the executive for “stock- price manipulation” commenced on Nov. 24, the company said in a statement dated Nov. 26 that was posted yesterday on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange website. Dung was arrested on Nov. 26, the company said in a Nov. 27 statement on its website. Vien Dong shares tumbled yesterday for an eighth straight day, sliding 4.9 percent to a record low of 46,900 dong.
“It’s the first time fraud in securities trading has led to the arrest of a company official and caused the police to file a criminal case,” Nguyen Son, the head of market development at the State Securities Commission, said in a phone interview yesterday.
The probe may help boost investor confidence in market transparency after the country’s stocks tumbled, said Tong Minh Tuan, deputy head of research at Hanoi-based BIDV Securities Co., a unit of Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam, the nation’s second-biggest lender. The VN Index has fallen 12 percent in the second half of this year, the worst performer among 87 benchmark indexes tracked by Bloomberg worldwide.
