For those who never knew that there was a brothel in Brunei way back when, so now you will know.

Introducing Papa Soon, then 57 year old, who was in the year 2000, charged with operating / managing a short-lived brothel (5-16 January 2000) at Kg Manggis Satu, Jalan Muara where 5 foreign ladies (from Indonesia and Thailand, ages 22-36) offering sex services were headquartered. The brothel was uncovered during a raid by the Immigration Department, codenamed “Operation Coming Soon”

In the house, the Johns will enjoy some drinks, karaoke, chit chats and later sex with the ladies. The ladies will get a $5 commission for every drink sold and Papa Soon will take half of the proceeds from the sex. For $150, the men can take the ladies home for the sex part of the service.

In court, Papa Soon pleaded not guilty and represented himself, cross-examining the girls when they testified against him. Papa Soon said that he was framed and that the girls accused him of forcing them to be prostitutes in order to get lighter sentences. In June 2000, Papa Soon was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. Seven months later, in January 2001, his sentence was reduced to 3 years and 6 months following his appeal. He dodged the rattan as he was above 50 years of age.

The funny thing was, despite the sensational Papa Soon case, years later, in 2013, there was another attempt to run a brothel in the country, this time in STKRJ Kg Sungai Buloh, when a local man allowed his house to be rented by Indonesian prostitutes (for $10 per gig) to conduct their business transextions. The man was later convicted and sent to jail for 6 months. This case created less buzz because the prostitutes were freelancers and that the man was not involved in pimping them out.

No further (known) brothel attempts after that (at least not until Oct this year), but this did not stop prostitutes to make a living here. From Indonesians and Thais, prostitutes from Vietnam and China began to take interest in the Brunei market. They would now skip involving locals in their business model, came to the country on a tourist or visitor visa, stayed at cheap hotels ($30-$40 a night), used their fellow country-mates as their pro-bono marketing executives, charged $100 or so for sex per session (enough to cover the room’s rent).

What worst could happen anyway. Get away with it, they will make a good sum of money. If they got busted, they will spend some time in jail then return home. No biggie.

In Oct this year, two Thai siblings were jailed for hosting prostitution services at their rented house from Feb to Mar 2019. During the period, they had “taken in 11 Thai women aged between 35 and 43 at their rented house in Kg Kianggeh and that they had pimped the women for prostitution”. Sounds like running a brothel to me. There was no reference to the word “brothel” this time around hencewhy the activity and arrest managed to slip through the public attention. The Thai lady was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment while her brother received 21 months.

Now, lets do the math. One prostitute can entertain up to 12 men per day, meaning she can earn 12x$100 = $1,200 daily. We have 11 prostitutes, meaning we are talking about 11x$1,200 = $13,200 worth of sex profits per day. Now, multiply that by say 50 days of transextions = $660,000. For use of their house, the siblings may charge a minimum of 10% of that = $66,000. These money will be remitted to their home country on a daily basis. Knowing how busy body the country’s population is, Im sure they knew well that their “business” would be short-lived. But, then again, like I said…what worst could happen anyway.