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Chuwit Kamolvisit Biography |
Chuwit Kamolvisit aka Davis Kamol (born August 29, 1946) is Thailand's biggest massage parlor owner. In 2003, after having been arrested, he made public his repeated bribes to hundreds of police officers. He then formed his own political party and intended to run for Bangkok governor in August 2004.
Mr Chuwit controls the Davis Group which owns six luxurious massage parlors near Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok (Copacabana, Victoria's Secret, Honolulu, Hi Class, Emmanuelle and Julianna), employing some 600 women and catering mainly to tourists. Yearly revenues have been estimated to be about 1 thousand million Baht per year. The parlors operate in a grey area of the law. Some women wait behind a glas window, others wait in a lounge area or can be viewed via closed-circuit TV. Once the (typically male) customer has chosen a woman, they retreat to a room where the customer is washed and bathed and the masseuse performs a foam massage with her nude body, normally followed by sex. Prices range from 2000 to 5000 Baht for a two hour session. In one interview, Kamolvisit claimed to be ignorant about the going-ons in the rooms; in another he admitted that prostitution takes place.
In January 2003, Chuwit was accused of having hired some 600 men to raze and bulldoze several bars and shops on one of his plots of land near Sukhumit road in Bangkok, in an apparent attempt to clear the land of low rent tenants so that it could be developed. The tenants believed to have valid leases from another company and were not informed of the raid that took place early on a Sunday morning. Chuwit was arrested and spent a month in jail. He denied the charges and was released on bail. Afterwards, angry that police would touch him, he released the amounts of bribes he had regularly paid in the past, along with names of some of the receiving police officers. At one point he put the amount of bribes at 200 million Baht over 10 years, at another he mentioned payments of 12 million Baht per month. An investigation ensued, and several officers were later suspended or demoted. Kamolvisit also accused his prison wardens of having accepted bribes from him.
Shortly after his revelation, Chuwit disappeared for two days. Afterwards he claimed to have been abducted and abused by police; others alleged that he had staged his own abduction.
Chuwit, who holds an MBA from a San Diego university, formed his own political party, "First Thai Nation", in September 2003. In April 2004 he announced that he would run for governor of Bangkok. He intended to spend about 20 million Baht on the campaign, with corruption in police and government being his main campaign topic. The elections will take place in August 2004.
Chuwit was charged with procuring minors for prostitution, when three girls aged under 18 but over 15 were found in one of his parlors. He was acquitted of the charge in June 2004; the court found that the girls had presented fake IDs and Chuwit could not have been expected to detect the fraud. Also in June, Chuwit sold three of his parlors, saying that police harassment had made operation of the parlors very difficult for him. |
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