HANOI: Vietnam on Wednesday sentenced two executives from its scandal-hit shipping industry to death for embezzlement, official media reported, the latest punishment meted out for the spectacular collapse of a state-run firm that triggered pledges to restructure the economy. The executives, Giang Kim Dat and Tran Van Liem, were the former business manager and director-general of the troubled shipbuilder Vinashinlines. The firm is a subsidiary of Vinashin, a shipping behemoth that nearly folded in 2010 under billions of dollars of debt in a scandal that rocked the communist country’s political elite and sparked government vows to clean up graft in its sprawling state-run sector. On Wednesday a Hanoi court deemed the pair guilty of pocketing 260 billion dong ($11.3 million) in shipping deals made between 2006 and 2008, state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. The firm’s former accountant, Tran Van Khuong, was also given life imprisonment for assisting with the embezzlement, while Dat’s father Giang Van Hien was handed 12 years in prison for money laundering. “All the defendants are convicted of serious crimes, causing damage to the state with more than 260 billion dong, so they should face a strict punishment,” the verdict said, according to Tuoi Tre newspaper.