Former beauty queen gets 2.5 yrs for prostitution brokerage

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court today gave sentences to former Miss South Mekong 2009 Vo Thi My Xuan and her accomplices in the high-class prostitution ring involving beauties, models and students that was uncovered last year.

>> High-class sex ring face prosecution

The ring included six members, including Xuan, 30; Tran Quang Mai, 42; Nguyen Huu Dat, 44; Le Quang Tuan Anh, 25, former runner-up of the 2012 Shining Beauty Contest; Tran Thi Hoa, 27 – also known as model Thien Kim; and Luong Quoc Huy, 28.

All of them have been indicted on charges of brokering prostitution.

Accordingly, the heaviest sentence of five years was given to the former pimp, Tran Quang Mai, while the former beauty queen Xuan was sentenced to 2 years and six months.

Former model Kim got a suspended sentence of two years; Huy received a one-year suspended sentence; and Anh got three years in jail.

As for Dat, who was sentenced to a year and a month and 24 days in prison, which is equal to his detention time before the trial, so he was set free immediately after the court ended.

Most of the models involved in the ring had solicited themselves for prices starting at US$2,500, the court said.

On June 2, 2012, police conducted surprise raids at two major hotels in the city center and caught four high-class prostitutes having sex with their wealthy clients. From the testimonies of these sex workers, police arrested the above-named prostitution brokers.

Mai later confessed to police that she had received a phone call from a man who said he wanted to be sexually served by a model named J.P. in a hotel in District 1. He also said he needed another girl for his friend.

Mai and the man agreed that he would pay J.P US$2,500 and the other girl VND5 million ($240). That same day Mai sent two more models to another hotel in District 1 to serve clients for $3,000.

Besides the two cases that were discovered by police, Xuan and Mai confessed that their ring had acted as agents for many models and beauty queens to solicit themselves for exorbitant prices.

The pimps also procured students for clients at a fee ranging from $300 to $600 per encounter.

The sex workers only kept about half of the money for themselves while the brokers took the rest.

According to investigators, even in a case where a model was paid $7,000, she actually pocketed just $1,000. The remaining $6,000 was shared among the brokers, with Mai receiving $1,500 plus a tip of $300.