By Na Jeong-ju
The owner of two large hostess bars in southern Seoul is being investigated for alleged tax evasion, prostitution and drug trafficking, prosecutors said Thursday.
The investigation is part of a crackdown on “room salons” in affluent districts in southern Seoul, which allegedly provided bribes to a number of police officers in return for their “protection.”
Prosecutors suspect the owner, surnamed Kim, dodged billions of won in taxes and engaged in sex trafficking while operating the hostess bars in Jamwon and Daechi.
Each of the bars has more than 100 rooms and hundreds of hostesses. The owner arranged numerous sexual liaisons between customers and hostesses at nearby hotels, according to the prosecution.
Last month, the prosecution indicted the owner of YTT, the country’s largest room salon, on charges of evading taxes by manipulating accounting books and arranging some 88,000 sexual liaisons since July 2010.
At Kim’s bars, customers drank with the hostesses, and if they wanted to have sex with the girls, they used reserved hotel rooms. A customer was charged 400,000 won ($360) for one night.
The investigation is based on testimony from another room salon owner, Lee Kyung-baek, who is on trial for bribing police officers, evading taxes and engaging in sex trafficking. A dozen incumbent and former police officers have been indicted on bribery charges in regard to Lee’s case. He operated about 10 such facilities around Seoul.
“We are investigating many owners of room salons in southern Seoul, which have been a hotbed for tax evasion and prostitution. Kim is one of them,” a prosecutor told reporters. “We also plan to question officers who allegedly received money and gifts from Kim. Customers who used their credit cards at his bars will be summoned for questioning, too.”
The officers are suspected of having tipped him off ahead of crackdowns on his illegal operations. Room salons have thrived using their ties to corrupt police officers. The National Police Agency changed officers who inspect such bars once a year and toughened punishments for those taking bribes.
A National Assembly report released last week showed that the number of registered room salons hit an all-time high of 32,790 in 2011, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier, despite a sluggish economy.
The increase in the number indicates that such places have been getting more customers despite the economic slump and repeated crackdowns.
The prosecution said some room salons have emailed people and used online advertisements to attract customers.
“Many users saw such advertisements featuring naked women in their email boxes. The problem is that such emails are distributed indiscriminately,” the prosecutor said.