Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, who ran English language school Apax Leaders, has been indicted for a second time, accused of fraudulently appropriating VND8.459 trillion (US$327 million) from 10,123 people, 60 more than in his first indictment.
The Supreme People's Procuracy indicted Thuy, who led Egroup Education Group JSC as chairman and CEO, on charges of fraud to appropriate property and giving bribes.
The procuracy first indicted him in December 2025, then sent the case back to Ministry of Public Security investigators, who began a supplementary investigation on July 27.
In the same case, Tong Thi Kim Lien, chairwoman and finance director of Nhat Tran Company, is accused of receiving bribes. The indictment alleges she had her staff draw up 12 contracts and issue invoices that created VND2.327 trillion in fake revenue for Egroup, in exchange for money from Thuy.
27 others, including accountants and sales managers at Egame Investment and Distribution JSC, which Thuy also chaired, were indicted for fraud.
The case will be tried by the Hanoi People's Court.
Compared with the first indictment, the amount Thuy is accused of appropriating has grown from VND7.677 trillion to more than VND8.459 trillion.
The alleged bribe is unchanged at nearly VND32 billion.
According to the indictment, Thuy began directing staff in 2014 to inflate Egroup's charter capital so he could repay debts, fund personal spending and keep the Egroup ecosystem running. He then had fictitious shares transferred to investors.
On his instructions, finance director Nguyen Manh Phu and chief accountant Pham Thi Thanh Tho inflated Egroup's charter capital from VND32 billion to VND962.5 billion. They also booked fake revenue equal to about 70% of annual revenue to make Egroup look like a large company.
Once investors were drawn in, Thuy would sell them shares at VND38,000 each and pledge to buy them back a year later at VND42,000, in return for the investors authorizing him to exercise all their rights and obligations as shareholders.
From 2021 to 2023, however, the group's Apax Leaders English centers and its kindergartens closed, and incoming cash could no longer cover expenses and maturing contracts.
Thuy then let 23 managers and team leaders, who oversaw 341 sales staff, use 70% of the money raised from new clients to repay earlier clients still owed money, with the remaining 30% going to the company.
From 2015 to 2023, Thuy and his accomplices appropriated VND8.459 trillion from 10,123 victims, the indictment alleges.
Between August 2023 and January 2024, the Hanoi People's Court and 12 lower courts in the city issued 22 civil judgments that took legal effect, 18 of them involving 21 victims. The courts also issued two decisions recognizing settlements between parties and six decisions suspending civil cases involving Egame.
At the request of the Ministry of Public Security, the Hanoi People's Court annulled all 18 judgments and the two settlement decisions.
 |
|
Nguyen Ngoc Thuy before his arrest. Photo courtesy of Egroup |
Victims' properties put in wife's name, then mortgaged
Supplementary investigation documents show seven victims agreed, at Egame's request, to sign contracts transferring their properties to people the company designated. Six of them received strategic cooperation agreements for Egroup shares from Egame in return.
Another victim transferred two properties and received bonds of Igarten Transaction Development JSC in exchange.
Authorities also established that from August 2016 to June 2021, five notaries certified the transfer of, or powers of attorney over, 28 properties belonging to 29 victims to three companies and seven individuals.
They found that the properties' legal status was checked during notarization and that the parties presented documents and followed procedures. The signatories had full legal capacity, signed voluntarily and showed no sign of being deceived or coerced.
As the five notaries did not profit from the transactions, they will not face criminal proceedings.
Also on Thuy's instructions, nine people signed contracts taking ownership of 32 properties and mortgaging them at banks. Among them, Thuy's wife, Le Thi Thanh Hien, and Egroup deputy CEO Nguyen Ngoc Khanh took ownership of six properties belonging to nine victims and later mortgaged them at banks.
Investigators found that Hien and Khanh did not know about, and were not involved in, Thuy's sale of fictitious shares to investors. As they and the others who took ownership of victims' properties did not profit, police did not pursue criminal liability against them.