Six death sentences sought in Vietnam graft scam HANOI - Vietnamese prosecutors have sought six death sentences and life terms for eight other defendants in the country's biggest corruption scam, a court official said on Tuesday. A total of 77 defendants have been in the dock of the southern Ho Chi Minh City People's Court since May 10, accused of various offences in a case that caused losses of some $280 million, a huge sum in poverty-stricken Vietnam. The scam involved a web of alleged bribery, cronyism and shady credit deals to shore up business transactions revolving around the Minh Phung and EPCO companies. Prosecutors have charged executives from the two firms, along with bankers and government officials, with offences ranging from fraud to stealing state assets. Most of the losses were borne by local banks on loans used for land speculation. The court official said Tang Minh Phung, head of the Minh Phung company, and Lien Khui Thin, head of EPCO, were among the defendants whom prosecutors had said should face the firing squad, the standard means of capital punishment in Vietnam. Other defendants facing death were banking executives Pham Nhat Hong and Nguyen Ngoc Bich, the official told Reuters, adding that the verdict should be handed down by the end of July. The official Tin Tuc (News) daily on Tuesday said prosecutors had also sought death for Nguyen Xuan Phong, an executive at a state company, and Le Minh Xu, a former official from a police export-import firm in Ho Chi Minh City. Xu has already been sentenced to life in jail for his involvement in the country's biggest smuggling case, which saw goods worth $71.3 million brought into Vietnam. That verdict was handed down last April, although it was unclear which decision would take precedence if Xu was sentenced -to death in the current trial. Two defendants were condemned to die in the smuggling case. Corruption, smuggling and other vices have emerged as major problems in communist-ruled Vietnam in recent years -- and the extent of official involvement in major scams has caused widespread disillusionment among ordinary Vietnamese. Minh Phung group, with interests from textiles to property, was formerly a shining star in Vietnam's nascent private sector. EPCO was once a partially state-owned trading firm. The operations of both firms have been largely curtailed. Reuters - July 13, 1999.