Louis Holdings chairman manipulated stocks 42x, sentenced to 5.5 years

Louis Holdings was a Vietnamese agriculture conglomerate whose chairman, Do Thanh Nhan, orchestrated one of Vietnam's most brazen stock manipulation schemes. In 2020 he acquired two struggling companies — Louis Land and Louis Capital — and set about inflating their share prices. Between January and October 2021 Nhan directed employees and family members to open 17 securities accounts at Tri Viet Securities, which he used to buy and sell shares of the two companies in coordinated patterns to create the appearance of demand.

The scheme worked spectacularly. Louis Land's stock (BII) surged from VND1,000 to VND33,800, while Louis Capital's (TGG) climbed from VND1,800 to VND74,800 — a 42-fold increase at its peak. Nhan also created a social media group called 'Louis Family' with over 10,000 members, where he urged investors to buy the stocks. Tri Viet Securities CEO Do Duc Nam facilitated the scheme by lending money to Nhan's accounts to execute the trades.

In April 2022 Nhan and three other executives were arrested. Nhan initially denied knowledge of the stock market, claiming Nam was the mastermind, but the court rejected his defense. In May 2023 he was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. Nam received four years. Seven other accomplices received suspended or shorter sentences. All eight were banned from securities and finance for 12 months after release. The court collected VND154 billion ($6.56 million) in illegal gains.