Alan Ho (center) at the moment his arrest
Hotel Lisboa’s executive director Alan Ho was sent in handcuffs to the Public Prosecutions Office yesterday morning, along with five associate suspects, for running a multi-million-pataca prostitution ring that was based at the hotel.
According to the Judiciary Police (PJ), the syndicate started operation in 2013; simply by charging prostitutes an annual membership fee, the syndicate earned a profit of more than MOP400 million during last year.
Besides a MOP150,000 annual membership fee, the syndicate charged the prostitutes a monthly security fee of more than MOP10,000. In exchange, it offered them hotel rooms for prostitution activities.
Evidence obtained by the PJ shows that between 2014 and the beginning of 2015, at least 2,400 women were registered with the prostitution ring. In a police raid carried out on Saturday evening, the PJ searched 90 premises in the hotel and seized MOP1 million worth of cash in RMB, which was allegedly two days ofprostitution earnings.
The six handcuffed suspects also include two senior hotel managers, a senior security manager and a lobby staffer. One of the senior hotel managers was hired by Alan Ho and was in charge of the membership system and room assignment.
The other suspect was a private driver who was responsible for recruiting prostitutes online from the mainland, where, as suspected by the PJ, the syndicate also had cohorts.
The 68-year-old Ho is the nephew of Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho, who has been in charge of the hotel’s food and beverage operations and is known for his expertise in wine collection.
A body of evidence was sent to the public procurator as well. Whether Ho will be charged depends on suspects’ testimony and verification of the evidence.
The 96 women busted for prostitution in the crackdown were also transferred to the prosecutor, where it was found that 30 of them were either illegal immigrants or holding fake travel documents, and one was a suspect wanted by the authorities. The women were aged between 20 and 27, with 95 of them coming from mainland China and one from Vietnam.
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