Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung has admitted to receiving 37 bribes worth a total of VND21.5 billion ($908,000) in relation to 327 "rescue flights" that brought Vietnamese citizens home from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dung, 59, was the first person to be questioned on Wednesday afternoon, the second day of the trial of the notorious "rescue flight" scam. He is one of eight former Foreign Ministry officials charged with taking bribes.
The former deputy minister confessed that during the stressful time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for Vietnamese citizens to return home was very high and many businesses needed to organize flights, but there were procedural hiccups along the way.
In the spirit of "listening and understanding difficulties of companies to guide and assess their capability" before licensing, Dung said he had agreed to meet them in his office.
The meetings were not aimed at setting conditions for them, he claimed. "There was no scheme or intention to demand [money] or cause any difficulties to the companies," Dung told the judges.
Head of the judicial panel Vu Quang Huy quoted testimonies that showed 13 companies had given bribes to Dung. He repeatedly nodded to admit receiving bribes each time the judge asked: "Is that right?".
The former deputy minister said that all the money was received after the flights were completed, when company representatives came to "thank him". He met them again to "listen, learn from experience, and receive gifts but did not demand them to do so".
"My apologies to the jury. At that time I did not realize that I was wrong, nor did I think I had done anything wrong in terms of executing the policy. I did not abuse my position to cause difficulties for anyone, but tried to create favorable conditions for them."
Dung committed to remedy the consequences. Prior to the trial date, his family had handed over more than VND16 billion ($676,000) to authorities.
Investigators said that taking advantage of the flights to "rescue" Vietnamese citizens from abroad during the pandemic, many ministerial officials colluded with businesses to reap hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars illicitly.
After the pandemic broke out, Vietnam organized about 2,000 repatriation flights to bring home citizens from overseas, according to a spokesman from the Ministry of Public Security.
When tickets for the flights were released, many people complained they were very expensive and that thye had go through cumbersome procedures.
Cases of giving, receiving and brokering bribes and fraudulently appropriating property when organizing rescue flights have been identified at the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Public Security, Health, and Transport, Government Office, Hanoi People's Committee, and related units.