Owner & Manager Of S’pore Nightclub Accused Of Forcing Singers To Become Prostitutes

2019-10-19 , 8:00 pm

Have you ever heard of a “flower joint”? You know, one of those shops that you can but a flower garland if you really enjoyed the singer’s performance.

As harmless as that sounds, TODAYonline reported there were four singers at one of the “flower joints” located at Geylang who accused both the joint’s owner and manager of forcing them to be prostitutes.

While that sounds horrible, the women admitted in court that after their stint at the joint called “Siam Disco” at 211 Geylang Road, they proceeded to be freelance prostitutes.

Wait. What?

So were the owner and manager guilty?

Cleared Of Most Charges

The trial lasted for 26 days, and on Friday, District Judge Eugene Teo Weng Kuan acquitted the manager, Zhang Xi, and the owner, Goh Siew Pong, of various charges and found them not complicit in forcing the women into prostitution.

While Zhang has been cleared of most of the charges, she still faces two more that involves allegedly possessing close to 2,000 obscene films.

She will only know whether the charges are withdrawn on 1 November.

Mr Goh was cleared of all five charges that involved him running his joint as a prostitution den with a “maizhong”, which translates to “buy time”, a system that allows customers to buy some time with the joint’s singers.

Why Didn’t The Judge Believe The Women’s Testimony?

The four women, whose names were redacted from all court documents, apparently gave testimonies that were inconsistent and incoherent.

The judge found their statements confusing at times as they were not able to properly account for why they wanted to come to Singapore.

In comparison, the defence was able to present their case in a more coherent manner.

How Were The Women Recruited?

Both the owner and manager of Siam Disco claimed that their joint was “proper” and the women were really hired as singers through the app, WeChat, back in May 2015.

All the four women who were hired then came to Singapore in June 2015 and they were advertised as Singers on WeChat.

What Did The Women End Up Doing?

While they were first marketed as Singers, Zhang claimed that the four women had sex industry experience and they wanted to earn more through performing sexual acts.

As we all know, this is very illegal in Singapore, so Zhang admitted that she decided to help them advertise this as “sexy massage services” and she managed it for them, receiving a cut of their earnings in return.

She did not tell Mr Goh any of this.

Why Were The Women Unhappy?

While the women were earning money through their “sexy massage services”, they wanted more and they especially didn’t want to have to give Zhang a cut of their earnings.

Three of the women were also apparently upset about the joint’s policy of having to pay a $50 penalty if they were tardy or if they had to leave early.

At this, the women wanted a way out.

Their agent in China then told them that if they paid $3,000, they could get a freelance visa which will allow them to do all kinds of work in Singapore, including prostitution.

However, Mr Goh told them that this wasn’t true and told them to either work for them or go back home to China.

Full of unhappiness, the singers then made a police report against both Mr Goh and Zhang in hopes they could stay and continue working as prostitutes rather than get sent home.

Wait, what?

Does This All Add Up?

While it seems clear that there is evidence to believe that the women were spreading false allegations, what about Siam Disco?

The prosecution argued that there were “strong suspicions” on whether Siam Disco was not all as it was made up to be.

Ms Yvonne Poon, the Deputy Public Prosecutor argued that Zhang didn’t even look at the four women’s singing ability when hiring them.

Instead, she asked for their body measurements, checked if they were sexy enough and only had the criteria that they had to be slender and young.

You see, even Tom Cruise is suspicious.

So What’s The Conclusion?

While Siam Disco might sound a little shady because of how the women were recruited, the judge concluded the case by saying if the joint was really a cover-up for illegal activities, there was “plainly no answer” as to why the women were warned with early termination.

In the end, there was no credible evidence to prove the defendant’s guilt and so the charges involving them partaking in forced prostitution were all dropped.

Well, although Siam Disco was not guilty of any illegal business, I guess it is just a reminder to the rest of us that we should be wary about flower joints we visit next time because not all of them are really as they seem.