Asia/Pacific News
Death Sentences Upheld in Vinalines Case
Vietnam's Supreme People's Court has upheld death sentences for two leaders of Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) who were convicted of corruption, Vietnamese news site TuoitreNews reports.
Vinalines ex-chairman Duong Chi Dung and former CEO Mai Van Phuc, together with other accomplices, caused a loss of over VND366 billion ($17.4 million) to the country in the case, which involved the 2008 purchase of a floating dock from Russia for $9 million.
Dung and Phuc each received VND10 billion ($474,000) as part of a kickback from Singaporean broker AP Company, which assisted in the sale of the dock, the courts found.
The Vinalines leaders denied receiving the kickback.
Court documents indicted that AP Company bought the deck for $2.3 million and sold it to Vinalines for $9 million.
Seven other defendants were also sentenced to jail terms in the case.
When the death sentences were handed down by the People's Court of Hanoi in December 2013, Alan Pham, chief economist at Vietnamese fund manager VinaCapital Group, said the case had become "a kind of poster boy for corruption."
