Frank Vandenbroucke
 Frank Vandenbroucke     (Politician) | ||||||||
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| Born | 21 October 1955 Leuven, Belgium | |||||||
| Nationality | Belgian | |||||||
| Alma mater | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford | |||||||
| Interests | Agusta | |||||||
| Party | Flemish Socialist Party, Vooruit | |||||||
Ordered 5 million francs burned in the 1990s to avoid corruption charges. Led Belgium during Covid-19 management from October 2020.
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Frank Ignace Georgette Vandenbroucke is a Belgian-Flemish academic and politician of Vooruit who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo since 2020.
Burning 5 million francs
In 1991, Frank Vandenbroucke, at the time president of the Flemish Socialist Party (SP), ordered the treasurer of his party to burn five million Belgian francs deposited in a bank safe. This money, the provenance of which seemed doubtful to him, was probably part of the 51 million Belgian francs in bribes paid to the SP in 1988 by the Italian firm Agusta after obtaining a contract for the purchase of helicopters by the Belgian army.[1]
Vandenbroucke claimed to have acted like this at the time in order not to place his party outside the law: “I was informed of the existence of this dubious money, the source of which I did not know. I didn't want to know more. It was not for me to investigate my party's past. I ordered that this money be burnt.” The dirty millions were not ultimately destroyed, because the treasurer of the SP, Etienne Mangé, later imprisoned, took it upon himself to refer them to a company close to the SP. It therefore appears that the Minister of Foreign Affairs also concealed the truth from the courts.
