Couple prosecuted for defrauding people of over 80 billion VND by promising to help them achieve immortality through spiritual practice.
The police have just initiated criminal proceedings and detained for four months two individuals for defrauding over 80 billion VND through the sale of items for "spiritual practice to become an immortal."
On February 26th, the Criminal Police Department of Dak Lak Provincial Police announced that they had initiated legal proceedings and detained Nguyen Anh Tuan (1986) and his wife Nguyen Thi Nho (1988), both residing in Ward 8, Tan An Ward, Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province, for four months to investigate their alleged involvement in "criminal activities."fraud and misappropriation of property".
According to initial investigations, in 2021, during their spiritual practice, Tuan and his wife noticed many people with very good economic conditions who wished to quickly complete their spiritual practice in order to "quickly attain enlightenment," so they conceived the idea of defrauding and appropriating their assets.
After purchasing over 6 hectares of agricultural land in Hamlet 3, Ea Khal Commune, Ea H'leo District, Dak Lak Province, Tuan and his wife demanded that the victims pay for the construction of an ancestral temple and six meditation rooms. They also introduced various items that they claimed would aid in achieving enlightenment and becoming "immortals" quickly through their spiritual practice.
These items are widely available on the market at very low prices, but Tuan and his wife exaggerated their rarity, claiming they were ancient and blessed by many monks around the world, and then sold them to their victims at exorbitant prices.
To gain more trust, Nhớ also created multiple email accounts impersonating enlightened masters and nuns who had attained immortality, capable of separating their souls to travel the world and moving objects with supernatural powers, to send messages luring and coercing victims into buying items for their spiritual practice.
Furthermore, Tuan and his wife hired people to bury the items in various locations on the land and then lied to the victims, claiming that the master had used magic to transport them from abroad. They also hired someone to impersonate the nun "Hoang Milan" to give Buddhist lectures.
Due to their trust, many victims spent tens of billions of VND buying items from Tuan and his wife for religious purposes. The couple bought these items for as much as 250 million VND each, then fraudulently resold them to victims for over 5 billion VND each.
During the emergency search, the police seized 10 land use right registration certificates; 3 savings cards worth nearly 12 billion VND; 1 car worth 2.7 billion VND, over 100 million VND in cash; 2 motorbikes; numerous gold jewelry items along with hundreds of religious artifacts such as maces, swords, prayer beads, unicorns, and enamel roosters…
To date, the Criminal Police Department of Dak Lak Provincial Police has clarified that Tuan and Nho used the pretext of practicing spiritual cultivation to defraud and embezzle over 80 billion VND from Mr. and Mrs. HVG (formerly residing in Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi; later moved to Hamlet 3, Ea Khăl Commune, Ea H'leo District) and Mr. NTL (residing in Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi).
