Two former executives at Vietnam National Shipping Lines were found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to death today [Dec. 16] by a Hanoi court, underscoring the government’s efforts to clamp down on corporate corruption.

The People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced Duong Chi Dung, the former chairman of Vinalines, as the state-owned company is known, and Mai Van Phuc, its former general director, to death for embezzlement, according to a verdict read at the court today. The two former executives were convicted of embezzling 10 billion dong ($474,000) each.

The death-penalty sentences, bringing the total to four handed down in a month, are the latest in a string of cases as the government seeks to curb corporate graft. The sentences may signal a crackdown of state companies as Vietnam works to reform the state sector and a banking system weighed down by Southeast Asia’s highest rate of bad debt.

“This case became a kind of poster boy for corruption,” said Alan Pham, Ho Chi Minh City-based chief economist at VinaCapital Group, the nation’s largest fund manager. “If the death sentence is carried out, that would really be a deterrent. There are many other cases that have not been exposed.”

Source: Bloomberg, December 16, 2013