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Couple jailed, fined for running website advertising vice operators' sexual services

(PHOTO: Getty Images)
(PHOTO: Getty Images)

A married couple were jailed a total of 29 months and fined $140,000 on Tuesday (9 January) for operating a website that advertised vice operators’ sexual services.

Liu Chin Guan, 36, and Angela Lim Xiuyan, 32, pleaded guilty last year to 10 and four charges respectively for abetment by intentionally aiding in living off the earnings of prostitution. They made some $650,000 over the five years that their website was in operation.

Liu was sentenced to 21 months’ jail and fined $100,000, while Lim received an eight-month jail term and $40,000 fine. Eleven additional charges were taken into consideration for Liu, an e-commerce businessman, while another 17 charges were taken into consideration for Lim, who is a housewife.

The court heard that Liu’s uncle, Sunny Liu, had engaged a designer to create a website advertising sexual services in 2011. Sunny then roped in Liu to help with the site’s administration.

After some time, Sunny went missing and Liu took over the website’s operations. According to court documents, Liu “actively advertised” the website on popular vice forums in an effort to drum up more business from vice operators looking to promote their services.

Liu charged the vice operators about $300 per month each to advertise on his site. To prevent his identity from being associated with the website, Liu also paid a Thai national $1,000 to open a local bank account into which the vice operators deposited their payments.

On Liu’s instructions, his wife regularly withdrew money from the account and sometimes liaised with potential advertisers. She also uploaded banners onto the website.

The couple used proceeds from the website for living expenses and to purchase a Volkswagen Golf car.

A total of 17 vice operators were found to have advertised their services on the couple’s website. Investigations revealed that two vice operators paid the couple fees of between $300 to $500 per month from their prostitution earnings.

The couple were caught in May 2016.

Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew had asked for a total sentence of 24 months’ jail and a $100,000 fine for Liu, saying that he had run a “large-scale enterprise” and that the period of offending was long. Chew asked for jail term of 10 months and a fine of $40,000 for Lim.

The couple’s lawyer Shaneet Rai said in mitigation that Liu was “second removed” from the operations of the vice operators and prostitutes, and had no contact with them.

Regarding Lim’s involvement in the enterprise, the defence highlighted Lim’s psychiatric report which said that she had a “timid” personality due to a traumatic childhood and deferred to her husband in decision-making matters.

Rai sought an 18-month jail term for Liu and up to three months’ jail for Lim. Both have no previous convictions.

District Judge Diana Haven Ho said that Liu’s actions were less culpable as compared to other vice website operators who created the content for their own websites and interviewed victims for prostitution.

DJ Ho imposed a high fine because the amount of revenue earned by Liu’s site was “substantial”.

The judge took into consideration Lim’s background in sentencing her but noted that Lim’s actions were not that limited as she did play a part in maintaining the website. She was also aware of the website’s nature, said DJ Ho.

The judge granted permission for the couple, who have an 11-year-old son, to begin serving their sentences on 19 February so they could celebrate Chinese New Year.

The maximum penalty for living off the earnings of prostitution is a jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to $10,000.

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