A police officer has been arrested for receiving over 12,100 U.S. dollars to help diminish charges against a corrupt official in the Transport Ministry, local media reported Thursday.

Lieutenant colonel Nguyen Dinh Toan, former deputy head of the Police Office of a ward in Hanoi's Dong Da district, was detained Wednesday, the newspaper People's Army said.

Toan indirectly received the money from Bui Tien Dung, general director of the Project Management Unit No. 18 (PMU18) under the Transport Ministry, who had been detained and prosecuted for gambling, giving bribery, and intentionally acting counter to state regulations in economic management.

Via one of his subordinates, Bui Tien Dung offered Toan 9,000 dollars and 50 million Vietnamese dong (over 3,100 dollars) so that the police officer would approach other influential figures, campaigning for slighter charges against Dung.

Vietnamese police have recently detained several local men, subordinates of Dung, for allegedly trying to bribe influential figures at the General Directorate of Police under the Ministry of Public Security, a department in charge of social order-related cases under the People's Supreme Procuracy, and the Government Office so that they would help diminish charges against Dung.

Dung has recently admitted he made a total bet of some 1.5 million dollars on about 40 international soccer matches, from February to October 2005.

He also admitted that the money came from three sources: his own savings, loans when he mortgaged two houses, and cash offered by organizations having working contacts with the PMU18 which is in charge of implementing and overseeing major transport projects nationwide. Local investigators are probing into the origin of the cash.

Source: Xinhua