Bankland accused of fraud for selling unregistered phantom shares to investors

Bankland has operated for more than a year, has not filed taxes, and has not obtained authorization from the authorities to issue shares, yet the defendants announced share issuance and established an electronic trading platform. As previously reported, Hanoi People’s Procuracy issued an indictment charging Vũ Đức Tĩnh (born 1981), Nguyễn Thị Thanh Vân (born 1992) and eight other defendants with the crime of fraudulently obtaining assets. According to the accusation, Vũ Đức Tĩnh directed other defendants to form the Bankland corporate entity, disseminated false information about investment types, urged investors to contribute capital and participate in investments in the company, purchase unlisted shares, and promote sales of real estate projects not yet licensed. The total amount mobilized by Tĩnh and individuals was 572 billion VND, which they did not fulfill and embezzled for personal use. The defendants are shown in the image selling Bankland shares before authorization. Vũ Đức Tĩnh is described as the person who directed the company’s activities and served as a senior advisor to Bankland. He discussed and agreed to appoint Quản Văn Dương as Chairman of the Board and Nguyễn Thị Như as CEO. Under the agreement, Tĩnh would receive 10% of the company’s revenue and profits. Bankland had operated for just over one year, and had not filed taxes or been licensed to issue shares. On June 1, 2022, Quản Văn Dương, in his capacity as Chairman of Bankland’s Board, signed a notice establishing the Bankland electronic stock exchange Banklandexxchange (website: https://banklandexchange.info/). At the same time, the notice announced the issuance of Bankland shares (ticker BLI) with 10,000 billion shares, with an initial valuation of $0.0001 per share; it created 10 bond packages from $100 to $10 million. The exchange would allow investors to own and trade BLI shares and use BLI shares to register for real estate purchases on Bankland’s exchange. Bankland also launched promotional programs to attract investors to deposit funds to buy share packages with rewards such as cash, gold, land, cars, SH motorbikes, iPhone, and travel. Essentially, this was a self-created cryptocurrency by Bankland with no market liquidity value. The indictment found that this share offering violated the Securities Law of 2019, specifically the conditions for an initial public offering. The law requires two consecutive profitable years prior to registration for public sale; Bankland did not register its public offering as required by Articles 16 and 18 of the 2019 Securities Law and Article 125 of the 2020 Enterprise Law. Through these methods, from December 2021 to September 2022, Vũ Đức Tĩnh, Quản Văn Dương, and Nguyễn Thị Như embezzled a total of 15 billion VND from 535 victims. Verification by UBCKNN showed that Bankland had not registered as a public company nor registered its offering or issuance of securities. A review by the Vietnam Securities Depository Center found that the BLI ticker was issued by Bao Long Insurance Joint Stock Company, not Bankland. The investigation identified 535 victims who purchased Bankland shares. The investigators have recorded statements from 83 victims. The victims request that Vũ Đức Tĩnh and his accomplices return the embezzled funds. Investigators have published information across mass media to inform 452 investors (who had not yet provided statements). The requests of these 452 investors against Vũ Đức Tĩnh and the accomplices will be processed in accordance with the law.