Chairman-linked firm helped rig An Gia's stock with 92 accounts — SSC fined VND4.5B

Between December 2020 and December 2022, Ho Chi Minh City resident Ho Thanh Trung used 92 securities accounts — four of his own, two in the name of Truong Giang Investment and Management JSC, and 86 lent by 27 other investors — to keep buying and selling shares of An Gia Real Estate (AGG) among themselves, creating artificial supply and demand to rig the price. AGG roughly doubled within eight months, peaked above VND47,500 in March 2022, and then slid back toward VND25,000.

Truong Giang had authorised Trung to run its two accounts completely — deposits, withdrawals, trading and investing — and the SSC found the company had thereby 'aided' the manipulation. The company was founded in 2019 by Nguyen Ba Sang, who was also chairman and CEO of An Gia, and had been An Gia's largest shareholder, holding up to about 42% before selling down from 2024.

On September 26, 2025 the SSC fined Trung VND1.5 billion and Truong Giang VND3 billion, banned both from securities trading and management positions for two years from October 1, 2025, and sanctioned 26 individuals who lent accounts. Notably, inspections found no illegal gains — the fines were for the conduct, not the profit.

VND1.5 billion for the trader and VND3 billion for Truong Giang; both banned from securities trading for two years, plus 26 account lenders sanctioned.

A company controlled by the listed firm's own chairman let an outsider run its trading accounts, creating an obvious conflict of interest.

Ninety-two accounts trading only among themselves is textbook wash trading, detectable in exchange data.

Even with no illegal profit found, regulators punished the conduct itself — so control failures carry cost regardless of outcome.

Truong Giang had a motive to prop up AGG: it was An Gia's largest shareholder while the manipulation ran.

Lending corporate accounts to a share-rigging ring is a governance failure that no 'no profit made' defence rescues: the SSC fined the company and its trader despite zero detected illegal gains.

AGG's chart tells the story: from above VND20,000 in December 2020 the stock doubled within eight months, hit a peak above VND47,500 in March 2022, then fell through the rest of 2022 to around VND25,000; by October 2025 it traded near VND19,350. Truong Giang gradually sold its stake and lost its position as An Gia's largest shareholder in late 2024. An Gia itself reported first-half 2025 revenue down 74% to about VND386 billion and profit down more than 58% to about VND90 billion. The case was part of an SSC crackdown on stock manipulation that has produced multiple two-year trading bans.