€4m tax bill for sex industry kingpin

THE Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has slapped a multi-million-euro tax bill on a key figure in the sex industry.

It follows a big investigation into the activities of the man who is alleged to have operated a number of brothels throughout the Munster region, the majority of which were in Cork.

Dubbed a “Mister Big” in the sex industry, the man’s tax liabilities and penalties could soar to €4 million.

A senior CAB source confirmed that a tax bill had been sent to the man who lives in a village in north Cork.

The bill was calculated after a number of documents had been seized following raids in Cork city and north Cork last year.

On November 20, 2006 — under the code name Operation Bolder — more than 100 gardaí conducted co-ordinated searches on 18 premises associated with the sex industry kingpin.

Detectives, uniformed gardaí and members of the Criminal Assets Bureau seized substantial amounts of cash, bundles of documents, video tapes and some DVDs. Forensic accountants started a detailed trawl through the documentation in order to assess tax compliance issues and alleged money-laundering.

Last April, gardaí made follow-up raids when they arrested six people in connection with the investigation. Three men and three women, ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-50s, were arrested in city suburbs and north Cork.

The raids involved 15 officers from the detective units based at Anglesea Street and Togher Garda Stations.

The six were detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1994. They were subsequently released without charge, but a file was prepared for the DPP.

A senior Garda spokesman said yesterday that the file focused on the “organisation of prostitution” and they were still awaiting directions from the DPP as to whether to proceed with prosecutions.

The man at the centre of the probe is in his mid-50s and is alleged to have been heavily involved in the sex industry for more than 20 years.

He has run operations in Cork, Limerick and Waterford during that time.

Earnings from prostitution can be extremely lucrative. Clients can be charged anything from €150 for half an hour.

Turf wars have often broken out in the city, especially between locally-based prostitutes and women who fly in from the Britain and book into local hotels, usually for a week at a time.