VietNamNet Bridge – “Telepath” Nguyen Van Thuy, 54, a native of northern province of Bac Ninh, and his wife, Man Thi Duyen, who is also a “telepath,” were arrested on October 28 for investigation of faking war martyr remains, earning hundreds of thousands of USD from the Bank for Social Policies of Vietnam.

Thuy and Duyen were arrested after the national television broadcaster VTV aired a report that was prepared over two years, reporting that the bank cooperated with Thuy to excavate fake remains of war martyrs to appropriate tens of billion dong from the budget during December 2007 – July 2013 period.

According to VTV’s investigation, 105 graves in the cemetery of martyrs of three provinces contained animal bones. Thuy and the VBSP illegally conducted four excavations with the support of local governments.

Each set of "remains," according to VTV, the bank paid Thuy VND75 million (over $3,500) and a total of VND300 million ($15,000) for each remain searching case. In only four excavations, Thuy was paid VND7.9 billion (nearly $400,000), not to mention dozens of other excavations.

It is reported that Thuy was a former police officer but he was fired and jailed for abuse of power and committing fraud.

In 2005, after his release from prison, Thuy called himself a telepath and began offering war martyr remain searching service. At that time, Thuy and his wife had only a small house but now, they own several houses worth tens of billions of dong, according to VTV.

According VTV1, Thuy was “experienced” for searching missing remains because he began practicing a grave finding service from the 1980’s. He said he could not only search for missing graves but also buried assets. He cheated many people by burying animal bones to fake as remains.

In 2007, Thuy began cooperating with the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to search for the remains of war martyrs in several provinces. The search missions have left many questions.

Specifically, on July 27, 2013, Thuy and the bank “found” the remains of nine war martyrs in the central province of Quang Tri. However, the case was defined as fraud since the remains, including animal bones, had been buried just before the search.

In many other cases, there were many proofs showing Thuy’s frauds.

Through the search of over 100 sets of remains, Thuy and his wife earned tens of billions of dong from the families of martyrs and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies.

Thuy and Duyen have been transferred from Bac Ninh to Quang Tri province for serving investigation.

At a press conference of the Government on October 26, Head of the Government Office – Mr. Vu Duc Dam said that this is a serious case that must be investigated and informed to the public.

Mai Lan