Clients scared away by police inspections

Onnucha Hutasing

Massage parlour tycoon Chuwit Kamolvisit has named a businessman as the buyer of three of his six massage parlours, and denied ever naming Deputy House Speaker Suchart Tancharoen as a potential buyer.

Mr Chuwit, who has announced his candidacy in the Bangkok governor election in August, told a press conference yesterday that Kampol Veerathepsuporn, owner of Noah massage parlour, bought his three massage parlours: Copacabana, Honolulu and Barbara, for 380 million baht.

He denied media reports yesterday that he had named Mr Suchart as the buyer, adding he was uncertain whether Mr Suchart and Mr Kampol knew each other although both were Chachoengsao natives.

The tycoon also announced his plan to sell his remaining three massage parlours _ Emmanuelle for 150 million baht, Victoria's Secret for 130 million baht and Hi-Class for 80 million baht.

Several people were interested in buying the venues, including Mr Kampol and a person Mr Chuwit indentified only as a major politician from the Nong Khaem area whose name begins with the initial ''P''.

Mr Chuwit said he had to sell his massage parlours because his customers dared not visit places inspected by police four times a day, after he had refused to pay kickbacks to some officers. This had also badly affected his roughly 1,000 employees.

He said he also wanted to repay loans worth about one billion baht to the Bank of Ayudhya.

As a candidate for Bangkok governor, Mr Chuwit has highlighted his policies to fight corruption in Bangkok, provide welfare for nightspot workers, build pollution-free garbage treatment plants and transfer authority for traffic management to the city.

He said his experiences have inspired him to combat corruption in Bangkok. The first thing he would do is boost revenues in the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration by 10 billion baht.

''At present, the BMA earns only 80 million baht per year by issuing building construction permits. As a matter of fact, I had to pay two million baht under-the-table money for the construction of this building [Copacabana massage parlour]. Does it mean that only 40 buildings are built a year with permission from the city? And where has the money gone?'' Mr Chuwit said.