'110,000 Members'... Corporate-Style Prostitution Website Operators Arrested

Operating a prostitution business by renting 21 officetel units in Gangnam area
Also advertised by enrolling in 545 prostitution franchise stores nationwide

A group operating a prostitution website with 110,000 members was arrested by the police.

[Asia Economy Reporter Intern Lee Gyehwa] A corporate prostitution organization that rented 21 officetels around Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and operated prostitution establishments was caught by the police. It is known that they rented servers overseas to avoid crackdowns and frequently visited the local police station to collect police crackdown vehicle numbers.

The Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency announced on the 21st that they arrested four people, including Mr. A, on charges of operating a prostitution promotion site with 110,000 members (violation of the Act on the Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic, etc.), and booked 25 others without detention and sent them to the prosecution.

Mr. A and others are accused of managing a prostitution site with 110,000 members, which had 545 prostitution establishments nationwide as franchise members, from April 2020 to March this year, and renting 21 officetel units in the Gangnam area of Seoul to directly operate establishments.

The prostitution organization operated the prostitution promotion site for about two years, advertising 545 prostitution establishments nationwide and receiving advertising fees of over 2.2 billion KRW.

Some members of the organization reportedly frequently visited the local police station to collect police vehicle numbers and compared them with license plates of vehicles parked around the establishments to evade police investigations.

The police notified the National Tax Service of the taxation data and applied to the court for seizure preservation of approximately 350 million KRW identified as criminal proceeds.

Additionally, the police arrested two business owners, including Mr. B, who operated prostitution businesses in the metropolitan area through a prostitution mediation site from 2019 to April this year, and booked 21 others without detention and sent them to the prosecution.

The police also identified criminal proceeds worth about 3.5 billion KRW from Mr. B and others and took seizure preservation measures for these funds as well.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.