Korean man arrested for running sex ring serving foreigners in HCMC

Son Teaheum, 47, and nine others are now under investigation for harboring and brokering sex services, police said Saturday.

After a long period of surveillance, the criminal police task force inspected the Luxury Business Club restaurant on Pham Thai Buong Street of District 7 on Tuesday night and found many women offering sex services to customers on the second floor.

The restaurant rises four floors with 28 rooms.

It has 200 female staff and mostly serves South Korean customers.

To get the sex services, customers must present their passports or prove to have connections with the owners.

Also on Tuesday night, police found four of the restaurant's staff members offering sex services to South Koreans at a hotel in the district.

The four women told police that they were assigned by their manager to serve customers at the hotel for VND3-5 million (US$123-205) each.

Son admitted to the police that in order to increase profits for the restaurant, he instructed the staff to offer customers various type of sex services and guarantee them that they would not be caught.

Under Vietnam's Penal Code, sex workers are given a warning and fined VND100,000-300,000 ($4.26-12.78), while pimps and sex ring organizers can get between six months and five years in jail.

Foreign nationals convicted of providing sex services also face deportation.