'Secrets Bar & Hotel' Raid Leads To American Manager's Arrest: Pattaya

[tgw]

the topic is heavily censored in pattaya forums for what ever reason, maybe because the owners of these forums are scared shitless.

I think the bust is due to failed business negotiations, as I suppose high profile Pattaya businesses must pay not just the local "protectors" but also others, among which probably also the guys in Bangkok and maybe also immigration.

Bangkok police does a yearly raid in soi 6 in addition of some regular busts in Pattaya similar to what happened to secrets, but the soi 6 bars are still in business, inspite of the ease of proving prostitution going on there. Connect the dots.

So I think Bangkok police just showed what can happen in case of non-payment.

[britmaveric]

Seems platinum-thai or whoever he is has his knickers in a twist. If you want to speculate on Larry/Secrets then you open yourself up to speculation on what your agenda is equally. Bars\gogos\discos are raided all the time - why the fascination with Secrets after 6yrs of non posting? In 6yrs there has been countless places raided and such so seems rather odd to just start commenting now?

[toastie]

I cannot believe the tears shed over this. A wealthy pimp got busted. Oh, cry my the River, do.

[Thaddeus]

yabba dabba doo. everything else i tried to post was c@nc0r3d i guess friends of mgmt?

It was probably more likely that it was an inability to use anything more complicated than a toaster.

[chops]

Things like this could turn Pattaya in to a ghost town.

They say they want tourists but then they do this sort of thing.

[cdnski12]

There must be "nice" girls there for a 3000 thB Short time!

[ALFREDO]

-NewlMintedThai-

wrote "Let the Zombis go to Phnom Penh"

-Minted Thai-

Have you been to Phnom Penh in the last years?

I believe not!

In comparison to that Sodom and Gomorrha like Pattaya, Phnom Penh is a holy city! ;-)

As far as I know, there is not one GoGo Bar in whole Cambodia, so also no crazy Ping Pong, Banana show and so on!

Dont know what you mean with your outburst!

[pomchop]

I haven't been as shocked since i learned that the girls who stand in front of the Nana Hotel in BKK are not nuns.

[Danlo]

There is a lot more to it all that it seems

[KeyserSoze01]

There is a lot more to it all that it seems

Ok, you've got the bait in the water. Would you care to share more on the topic or are you just teasing us?

[Naam]

I haven't been as shocked since i learned that the girls who stand in front of the Nana Hotel in BKK are not nuns.

you don't say!

[Considered Opinion]

Wonder who Larry pissed off? This has been a successful bar, restaurant and hotel for ages. Another local business perhaps?

Doesn't necessarily have to be Larry that has pissed someone off, he has ended up getting the crappy end of the stick though.

Thaddeus, I just noticed this..

• Advanced Members
  
• 
  
• 10,075 posts
  

Wow..

he needs to get a life think to much time on his hands get a hobby or 2

I know that. I was merely pointing out that 10,000 posts would seem to me to indicate someone with a good internet connection.

[Ashoka]

I think immigration need to get more strict especially since everyone hate Thailand so much and blame us for their mistake.

[ttthailand]

I cannot believe the tears shed over this. A wealthy pimp got busted. Oh, cry my the River, do.

I have to agree...I don't feel sorry for anyone getting busted for selling ladies..... all low lifes !!!

[saroq]

Interesting that it was Bangkok police who raided the bar.

The bar must be paying tea-money to the local police, otherwise they wouldn't have been in business this long.

If they had stopped paying the money, it would have been the Pattaya police who would have raided.

But this was Bangkok police.

This sort of thing always pisses off the local Pattaya police, as it is always seen as stepping on their turf, and rather messes up the protection racket if they cannot guarantee protection.

There is no way that the Bangkok police happened to stumble upon this place and found to their horror that there might be prostitution taking place. It is no different to any other of the many gogo bars in Pattaya.

They went to Pattaya with the specific aim of taking this manager down.

This generally means one thing: someone paid the Bangkok police to raid Secrets.

The manager must have made an enemy somewhere along the line.

One grumbles about the Thai police, but often it turns out that it was another Westerner who engineered this situation.

ranma

More than likely a jealous competitor. Western or local? In my experience it far more likely to be a local competitor not a foreign one.

[NanLaew]

Firstly, I have to admit I like Larry, nice guy.

But I find it amazing that their own forum makes no mention about this, I wonder why???

Yet if you owned any other business they would normally allow people to post about these sort of things about these other businesses and these businesses usally cop a lot of unwarranted posts.

Does the Tourism Authority of Thailand mention jet-ski scams on their web site?

[sarcasm in original post belatedly acknowledged]

Edited June 19, 2012 by NanLaew

[Canuckboy86]

I've read most, if not all of the posts in this forum. I've been to Secrets, not my favorite place, but Larry is a nice guy. Would be interesting to know why he went through this raid.

First, having rooms attached to his bar which offered services seems like a stretch. Have you been to a go-go (such as LK Metro) that DOESN'T offer rooms with their girls? So that argument is out, in my books.

Paying, or not paying tea money - only Larry and the owner know if this was the reason. The underage girl argument reported by the paper? Always makes for great headlines - why no follow up on this? Seems like an unsubstantiated claim to me.

The blatant advertising and wealth could certainly be a factor. Look at the Secrets website and see the girls in bikinis, luxury yacht and resort, and advertising rooms, girls and definitions of "barfines", etc. The website alone would certainly entice any of the BIB guys to make a raid for a piece of that action, and with just cause to do so with what the site hints at. So, likely a factor in deciding to make the raid.

However, since they got picked out AND publicly denounced in the press as well (and many other similar foreign owners not) -- I'd say there is perhaps one more underlying factor involved. Probably not the "tea money" (as that wouldn't be paid to BIB, but Pattaya cops. Most likely rage from an outside source. Either pissed off customer (I saw a really pissed off one posted a nasty review on how he got ripped off there); pissed off and jealous disgruntled staff or ex-girlfriend of someone's (who might be able to produce an UA girl if called on to do so (not saying their was one); envious competitor (highly unlikely, as a farang owner wouldn't want same done to them); or from the ex-Thai diplomat lady that had the argument online with Secrets staff (as mentioned by previous poster).

[NanLaew]

The owner of this bar, the American, must have forgot to pay his monthly under the table installment to the cops to look the other way, so they shut him down, that'll teach him the next time he opens a bar - whore house, or anyone else wanting to do the same, that they mean business.

it's like he is the only bar doing this in Pattaya, come on, just about every girly bar is doing the same openly.

Your theory might have held water had it been the PATTAYA police raiding him instead if the national-level CSD.

Wasn't there an episode where the CSI Miami gang went and solved a CSI NY problem?

What's your point anyway?

[NanLaew]

One of the foreign undercover police volunteers requested suspect number 2

Seems there has been a very dramatic change in the policy for foreign police volunteer.

Before, the police would effect the arrest only AFTER sex was completed with suspect number whatever by the foreign police volunteers.

That policy change certainly lowers the benefits of volunteering.

http://www.thaivisa....ice-volunteers/

.

Puerile. But not unexpected.

[NanLaew]

Things like this could turn Pattaya in to a ghost town.

That might not be such a bad thing. Start over, from scratch. Let the zombies go to Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh cleaned up its act a few years ago already, no gogos no nudity, a couple of freelancer clubs and a handful of bars in the whole city.

There has never been go-gos or nudity in PP, just countless brothels.

And somehow that makes it more acceptable?

[oops]

Interesting that it was Bangkok police who raided the bar.

The bar must be paying tea-money to the local police, otherwise they wouldn't have been in business this long.

If they had stopped paying the money, it would have been the Pattaya police who would have raided.

But this was Bangkok police.

This sort of thing always pisses off the local Pattaya police, as it is always seen as stepping on their turf, and rather messes up the protection racket if they cannot guarantee protection.

There is no way that the Bangkok police happened to stumble upon this place and found to their horror that there might be prostitution taking place. It is no different to any other of the many gogo bars in Pattaya.

They went to Pattaya with the specific aim of taking this manager down.

This generally means one thing: someone paid the Bangkok police to raid Secrets.

The manager must have made an enemy somewhere along the line.

One grumbles about the Thai police, but often it turns out that it was another Westerner who engineered this situation.

ranma

Bangkok Police coming to Pattaya to arrest someone running bar... with call girls...How many bars do you think they passed in Bangkok...Guess Soi Cowboy was closed, I am sure Nana Plaza wasn't operating anymore because there is a police box right on the corner.

[hm1973]

I hate to rain on everyone's parade bu the Police involved were not Bangkok Police, they were from the new Pattaya Branch of the Crime Suppression Division who handed the case straight to Pattaya Police.

[Thaddeus]

Doesn't necessarily have to be Larry that has pissed someone off, he has ended up getting the crappy end of the stick though.

Thaddeus, I just noticed this..

• Advanced Members
  
• 
  
• 10,075 posts
  

Wow..

he needs to get a life think to much time on his hands get a hobby or 2

I know that. I was merely pointing out that 10,000 posts would seem to me to indicate someone with a good internet connection.

Yep, it has managed to hold itself together a little under four times a day over the last seven years.

[chrisinth]

I still reckn it has something to do with the mention of the 14 year old "maid" that was supposedly impregnated, and not to do with the fact that the girls were doing the business.

If the above is the case, then they deserve everything they get (and more) IMO. To get the BIB coming down from Bkk to just bust one establishment for prostitution to me would suggest there is something more going on.

[jalansanitwong]

I would be surprised if there are any businesses in pattaya that dont sell prostitution or benefit indirectly from it in one form or another.

An over zealous competitor probably 'droped a dime' on him.

[bangkokheat]

sounds like its larry"s turn to pay the bar fine, I wonder what services he will get for his money

[brewsterbudgen]

I thought I read Larry was caught red handed handling the "pimp" money ?

...and you believe everything the BiB reports to the media..?

Do you really believe anything you read? Exactly how many papers are running the story?

so you saying he was not arrested? and the photo's are fake? what other locals papers are there? we already established that pattaya one is not running the story and the reasons, so who else?

I was referring to the salacious nature of the report not the principle facts (i.e. the 14 year old chambermaid).

[Woolybully]

Lawd have mercy ! Start building Jails for the thousands of Bar Owners in Pattaya , Phuket , Chiang Mai , Chiang Rai , Korat , Hua Hin , Cha Am etc etc etc....what a joke. Someone did not pay someone or someone got pissed off with someone....n´est ce pas ? But then 3000 Baht is a bit too much for a happy completion.

[phl]

I was referring to the salacious nature of the report not the principle facts (i.e. the 14 year old chambermaid).

Yes and in OP it did say the story of 14 year old not yet substantiated.

One source close to the investigation said police were looking into allegations that a 14-year-old Thai girl working as a maid at Secrets Pattaya was impregnated by a “foreign manager” – a story not yet substantiated.

[brewsterbudgen]

I was referring to the salacious nature of the report not the principle facts (i.e. the 14 year old chambermaid).

Yes and in OP it did say the story of 14 year old not yet substantiated.

One source close to the investigation said police were looking into allegations that a 14-year-old Thai girl working as a maid at Secrets Pattaya was impregnated by a “foreign manager” – a story not yet substantiated.

And yet many are quoting it as a fact.