"Checking if Boyfriend Visited a Sex Trade Venue..." 2,000 Women Gather, 'Entertainment Detective' Earning Billions

A so-called 'entertainment detective' who secretly informed female clients about their husbands' or boyfriends' visits to prostitution establishments and earned billions in income was sentenced to prison.

On the 6th, Judge Hong Jun-seo of the Incheon District Court Criminal Division 5 announced that A (40), who was indicted for violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation.

Judge Hong also ordered A to perform 160 hours of community service and to pay a fine of 23 million won.

A was charged with informing about the prostitution visitation records of husbands or boyfriends to over 2,000 female clients from March to November last year and pocketing 140 million won.

Investigations revealed that he committed the crime together with acquaintance B, who had experience operating prostitution establishments in the past.

B posted advertisements on women-only online communities saying, "If you pay 50,000 won per case, we will check your man's prostitution establishment visitation records," to recruit female clients, and A received and managed the fees in his own account.

It was investigated that B obtained personal information through an application where prostitution establishment operators organize and share customers' visitation records and personal details.

Judge Hong stated, "Considering various evidence such as the account transaction records for the payment of the fees, the charge of disclosing others' secrets obtained through information and communications networks is recognized as guilty," but also explained the sentencing by saying, "Taking into account that he did not lead the crime."