Asia/Pacific News
Death Sentences for Former Vinalines Execs
Two former executives of Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) have been sentenced to death in an embezzlement case, Bloomberg reports.
The People's Court of Hanoi convicted the two, former chairman Duong Chi Dung and former general director Mai Van Phuc, of embezzling 10 billion dong ($474,000) each.
"This case became a kind of poster boy for corruption," said Alan Pham chief economist at Vietnamese fund manager VinaCapital Group.
"If the death sentence is carried out, that would really be a deterrent.
"There are many other cases that have not been exposed."
Other former Vinalines employees and government employees have been sentenced to jail terms of as much as 22 years in the case, in which defendants falsified technical specifications of a non-functional dock and overpaid for it, costing the state about 367 billion dong ($17.2 million).
Dung and Phuc both denied the charges.
"I wasn't greedy or thinking about personal gain," Dung said at court last week.
"I very much wanted to contribute to the marine-shipping industry."
The indictment of the men said that the defendants violated rules on investment, bidding, and customs procedure in 2007 and 2008, Vietnam News Agency (VPN News) reports.
Dung was said to have made a deal with an intermediary setting a $9 million purchase price for the dock, which had been purchased from its real owner for only $2.3 million.
The dock was built in 1965 and had been damaged and left unused since 2006.
