Police have imposed an exit suspension order on Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of property giant FLC and one of the richest people on Vietnam’s stock market who illegally sold almost 75 million of the company's shares over two months ago.

The Ministry of Public Security’s investigation police agency on Saturday issued a decision to ban Quyet from leaving Vietnam for one month and invited him to their office to clarify some issues, a source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday.

From Sunday evening through Monday morning, some websites and forums spread rumors saying Quyet had been arrested, but as far as Tuoi Tre knows, such information was incorrect.

By far, the investigation agency has yet to initiate any legal proceedings against Quyet, the source said.

Earlier in January, the unauthorized sale of a large volume of FLC shares by the 47-year-old tycoon rattled the stock market.

After several consecutive rising sessions, Quyet sold 74.8 million FLC shares on January 10 without announcing his planned transactions in advance as promulgated by law.

On January 18, the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC) announced it had imposed a fine of VND1.5 billion (US$50,000) on Quyet and suspended him from securities trading for five months.

Prior to the unannounced sale, Quyet was the largest shareholder at FLC, owning 215.4 million shares, equivalent to a 30.34 percent stake in the group.

As Quyet’s transactions were terminated, his holding at FLC remained the same.

However, the incident undermined investors’ confidence in the real estate group, causing many investors to offload FLC shares and sending the stock price down from VND24,100 ($0.8) on the morning of January 10 to VND21,150 ($0.7) in afternoon trade and to VND19,100 ($0.63) on the following day.

In November 2017, Quyet committed the same act for selling 57 million shares of FLC without any prior announcement.

The SSC then fined him VND65 million ($2,850), which was much less than the at least VND400 billion ($17.54 million) he could have pocketed from the illicit sale.

On Monday, FLC slumped more than 6.8 percent against last Friday to close at VND13,600 per share on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, with its matching volume dropping strongly to only 5.1 million shares.

Established in 2001 and headquartered in Hanoi, the FLC Group operates in such fields as finance, real estate, golf resorts, aviation, high-tech agriculture, financial investment, education, and healthcare, among others, the conglomerate said on its website.

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