Finding it hard to support his family’s expenses, being the sole breadwinner as a hotel chef, a man turned to the online vice trade to make some extra cash on the side.
And extra cash he earned indeed — 48-year-old Xue Donglai raked in about $15,000 in profit from renting rooms out as brothels, The Straits Times reported. The Singapore permanent resident from China has since been sentenced to three months in jail and a $23,000 fine after pleading guilty to charges that included running a brothel and living on the earnings of prostitution.
Coming to Singapore in 2000 as a cook in Grand Shanghai Restaurant, he joined Swissotel Merchant Court later on in 2014 as a junior sous chef. But with his daughter studying in the UK, he looked for other avenues to supplement his income.
After discovering the online vice trade, he rented apartments over the years to sublet them to prostitutes. Xue got his friend to post advertisements on popular Chinese messaging app WeChat to get tenants working as prostitutes. They were charged between $100 to $140 a month, depending on the size of their rooms.
It was on Feb 25 that four of the prostitutes were arrested during an undercover operation. Their landlord was arrested at Swissotel Merchant Court the same day and was sacked from his job, obviously.
In court, Xue’s lawyer noted how truly remorseful Xue was and how he had co-operated fully with the authorities.
