Vietnamese Shipping Executives Sentenced to Death in Corruption Crackdown

Vietnamese Shipping Executives Sentenced to Death in Corruption Crackdown

Two Former Vinalines Executives Convicted on Embezzlement Charges

VU TRONG KHANH

Dec. 16, 2013 8:28 a.m. ET

HANOI—A court in northern Vietnam Monday sentenced two former executives of a state-owned shipping company to death after they were convicted of embezzlement, as part of the country’s crackdown on corruption.Duong Chi Dung, former chairman of Vietnam National Shipping Lines, or Vinalines, and the former director general of the company, Mai Van Phuc, were handed the death penalty at the end of a trial that began Thursday at the People’s Court of Hanoi, said Mr. Dung’s defending lawyer Ngo Ngoc Thuy.

Mr. Dung and Mr. Phuc, both 56 years old, were convicted of embezzling nearly $1.7 million and violating state regulations when they were handling the purchase of an old dry dock for the company in 2007 and 2008, Mr. Thuy said. The two men admitted to breaking state regulations, but they didn’t plead guilty to the more serious charge of embezzlement, their attorney said.

“Both of them object the conviction at the court, but I don’t know yet if they will appeal against their sentences,” Mr. Thuy said.

The court also sentenced four co-workers of the executives and four customs officials in Khanh Hoa province to between four and 22 years in prison for violating state regulations for their involvement in the case, which has also caused property damage of $17.5 million to Vinalines, state-run Voice of Vietnam Radio reported.

Many Vietnamese people have cited corruption in part for sluggish economic growth in recent years. This has undermined the standing of the Communist Party and the government, prompting the authorities to step up their efforts to crack down on corruption.

The Communist Party last December set up the Central Internal Affairs Commission, which is mainly tasked with fighting graft. The commission said it has recently sent seven working groups to provinces throughout the country to inspect and supervise the investigations into suspected corruption.

The trial of Vinalines executives comes one month after Vietnam handed down a death sentence to a former director general of a finance leasing arm of the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam after he and others were convicted of embezzling $25 million.

Vietnam will try more than 40 corruption cases over the next year, the Communist Party’s secretary-general Nguyen Phu Trong said last week in a national televised address.

Among those expected to be tried is banking tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien, whose arrest last year for alleged financial improprieties triggered a stock market selloff. The benchmark VNIndex fell about 10% within three days, and depositors rushed to withdraw money from one of the banks where Mr. Kien was a co-founder. Mr. Kien couldn’t be reached for comment.