A military court in Vietnam sentenced former coast guard commander Nguyen Van Son to 16 years in prison on Thursday. He was found guilty of embezzlement due to siphoning off VNĐ 50 billion ($2.1 million) from military procurement deals.

Convicted as the mastermind behind the theft of 50 billion dong during his tenure as coast guard commander, Son was arrested in April 2022 and accused of embezzlement in violation of Clause 4, Article 353 of the Penal Code. He allegedly engaged in “financial mismanagement” and “procurement irregularities” between 2015 and 2020.

The judge in Son’s case described his case as a “particularly serious case” which adversely affected the reputation of Vietnam’s defense services. Six of Son’s associates—including former deputy coast guard commander Pham Kin Hau and former deputy head of the finance department Bui Van Hoe—were also sentenced to jail, with prison times ranging from 10 to 15 and a half years, for participating in the embezzlement.

The imprisonment of Son and his associates came in the wake of Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong’s crackdown on corruption, which has seen the imprisonment of high-ranking officials, the exit of Vietnam’s president, and the termination of two former deputy prime ministers.