7 Arrested Including Prostitution Business Owners and Website Creators, 30 People Booked
Business owners and website creators who have been arranging outcall prostitution services at private homes and lodging establishments were arrested in large numbers by the police. The photo shows text messages arranging prostitution services. Photo by Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency
[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] In the metropolitan area, 37 people including business owners and website creators who sent women to private homes and lodging facilities to mediate prostitution were caught by the police.
The Life Order Division of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency announced on the 11th that they arrested seven people including prostitution business owner Mr. A on charges of violating the Act on the Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic, and criminally charged 30 related persons including Mr. B, a rental operator of prostitution mediation sites.
Mr. A and others are suspected of operating four outcall prostitution businesses and using 41 internet sites from July 2015 to August this year to send women to private homes and lodging facilities throughout the metropolitan area to mediate prostitution.
The businesses they operated were found to be composed of a coalition including prostitution business owners, managers, drivers, prostitutes, cash withdrawal agents, and prostitution site creators.
The four prostitution business owners collaborated using a so-called "call transaction" method, where if one business lacked prostitutes to send, they would transfer reservations to another business and receive a certain commission.
They hired drivers and prostitutes remotely, had them receive mediation payments, and then transferred the money to bank accounts under false names.
Mr. A and others withdrew the criminal proceeds deposited in this way directly or through separately hired cash withdrawal agents at ATMs throughout the metropolitan area.
The police judged that this mimicked the type of voice phishing crime where only the on-site collectors are caught during police crackdowns, while the masterminds remain uncaught.
Also, when taking reservations, they checked the identity of the clients through a police identity verification app, and only sent prostitutes to private homes or other reserved locations if the identity was confirmed.
In particular, Mr. A expanded his territory by acting as an internet citizen monitoring member operated by a certain local government and reporting competing outcall prostitution sites.
Mr. B received up to 5 million KRW per month in rent for each outcall prostitution site and earned about 160 million KRW in criminal proceeds over the past two years.
The police seized 75 million KRW in cash held by the business owners, 102 burner phones used for operations, and 79 cash cards used for prostitution withdrawals.
They also notified the National Tax Service of 2.7 billion KRW in criminal proceeds from prostitution mediation as taxable data. For 1.2 billion KRW in assets owned by the business owners, pre-indictment seizure and confiscation preservation measures were taken.
Pre-indictment seizure preservation is a system that prohibits the disposal of criminal proceeds or earned assets before the suspect is indicted, and confiscates them once guilt is confirmed.
The police said, "This is a case of cracking down on a mutated prostitution business that visits private homes due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic," and added, "We are expanding the investigation by reviewing about 10,000 pieces of personal data of male clients held by Mr. A and others."
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