S'porean woman, 43, runs online vice ring for 5 years, earns S$200,000 from uni student escort, 22

A Singaporean woman illegally ran an online vice ring for five years and lived off over S$264,000 in proceeds from six sex workers.

One of them, a then-22-year-old university student trying to get some extra cash for her studies, earned S$200,000 for Phua Shewn Ying over four-and-a-half years.

Phua and her husband Lim Teck Lee, who assisted her with the vice activities, were hauled to court.

On Jan. 15, Phua was sentenced to one year and 11 months’ jail, and was also fined S$170,000, according to The Straits Times.

Started online vice ring in 2017

Court documents indicated that Phua, who also goes by the name Pan Xuanying, decided to set up the online vice ring, "girlsgeneration" in 2017 as she was facing financial difficulties.

Phua herself had worked as a social escort for one month when she was 28.

With her knowledge of the vice trade, Phua engaged Singaporean and Malaysian women as social escorts.

Phua would then obtain revealing photographs from the women to advertise their sexual services online.

Phua charged an hourly rate of S$550 to S$750 for Singaporean women's services, and S$550 to S$600 per hour for Malaysian women.

After a customer made a booking with her, Phua would arrange for an available social escort to provide sexual services to them.

Phua had six sex workers working for her under such arrangements.

Earned S$200,000 from uni student escort

One of these escorts, a Singapore permanent resident named "T" in court documents, was 22 years old when she started working for Phua.

T had previously worked as an escort for a person named "James" between 2016 and 2018 to earn extra money for her university studies, but stopped when she went to Australia for a student exchange program.

When T returned to Singapore in June 2018, she tried looking for James to continue escort work, but couldn't contact him.

So she searched the Sammyboy forum and came across the "girlsgeneration" username used by Phua, as it was one of the most active users.

After T contacted Phua and expressed her interest to work as an escort, Phua proceeded to advertise her services on the forum and assign clients to her.

From July 2018 to December 2022, T worked as a prostitute for Phua, and provided sexual services to about 900 customers.

Phua initially charged T's customers S$650 per hour but increased this to S$700 upon T's request.

Phua would take a share of S$270.

At first, she would collect this from T in person.

Later, Phua instructed T to deposit her share in specified bank accounts, and to indicate that the transfers were for "laundry", "groceries" or "clothes".

T transferred a total of S$200,000 of prostitution earnings to Phua over a four-and-a-half year period.

Husband helped "rent" bank account to deposit earnings

In 2019, Phua started working with a Malaysian agent referred to as "Cynthia" in court documents.

Cynthia agreed to help Phua to recruit women from Malaysia as escorts, in exchange for half of Phua's earnings.

She also provided a bank account where the earnings from Phua's sex workers would be deposited.

Sometime between 2020 and 2021, Phua complained to her husband, Lim, about difficulties faced in using Cynthia's bank account.

So Lim, 45, also known as Lin Deli, asked his friend for help with "renting" a bank account.

Lim's friend introduced him to a person called "Hana", who gave Lim access to three or four different bank accounts over a course of a year for the purpose of depositing the prostitution earnings.

Lim paid Hana S$2,000 a month for use of the accounts, along with an additional S$500 per week for "money withdrawal services" so he could avoid being associated with Phua's vice activities.

Each week, Lim would liaise with an unknown person and collect from them in person an amount of cash withdrawn from the purchased bank account.

Lim would store the cash in his bedroom safe, and he and Phua would use it for family expenses.

Lived off over S$260,000 earnings in 5 years

Police arrested Phua and Lim on Jan. 5, 2023, after receiving information about their involvement in vice offences.

Phua was found to have lived off an estimated total of S$264,325 in prostitution earnings between 2017 and December 2022, prosecutors said.

Phua herself admitted to personally benefitting from around S$150,000 to S$200,000 of earnings, most of which she spent on family expenses.

Court documents also indicated that Phua and Lim been operating a funeral business since February 2021.

Phua pleaded guilty to four charges relating to running a vice ring and living off prostitution earnings, while Lim pleaded guilty to abetting Phua in doing so.

She masterminded the vice ring: Prosecution

The prosecution asked for a sentence of 19 to 25 months' jail and a S$170,000 fine  for Phua on Jan. 13, reported Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min).

The prosecutor deemed Phua to be the mastermind behind the vice ring, who gave instructions to the sex workers, advertised their sexual services, set prices, arranged bookings with customers and collected payment from workers.

Nevertheless, the prosecutor noted that Phua had never secured a sex worker's continuance of her services through "oppressive or cruel means", ST reported.

The prosecution also asked for nine to 10 months' jail and a fine of S$30,000 for Lin.

The couple's defence lawyer pleaded for leniency on behalf of Phua and Lin, saying that their autistic son suffered from separation anxiety disorder.

As such, the lawyer asked for a postponement of the sentence.

Fined S$170,000 on top of jail sentence

The judge sentenced Phua to one year and 11 months’ jail and a fine of S$170,000 on Jan. 15, ST reported.

Lim was fined S$30,000.

Phua is currently out on bail and is expected to begin serving her jail sentence on Feb 12.

Top image from Canva