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4play See other 4play Articles Title: Amsterdam's red-light district facing crime clean-up Amsterdam has launched a crackdown on "crime" kingpins in the city's Red Light District that threatens to leave hundreds of sex workers out of a job, and has solicited help from a slightly bemused sector -- Dutch banks. The city authorities have no quarrel with prostitution, which was legalized in 2001 in this country that has historically prided itself on tolerance. And they have no desire to shut down what is also a thriving tourist district and a "must" on the itinerary of one-third of all visitors to this city of canals, Van Gogh and Rembrandt. "This is a frontal attack" aimed at cutting ties between prostitution and the underworld that uses the sex industry for laundering money, Mayor Job Cohen said in comments to the Het Parool newspaper. "One third of the businesses have been scrutinized, the other two-thirds will follow," Hendrik Wooldirk, a spokesman for Cohen, told AFP. The banks' part, in the eyes of city officials, would be to finance "honest entrepreneurs" to keep the sex business transparent and break the stranglehold a handful of powerful bosses now have on the district. "The banks are not really chomping at the bit to finance sex businesses," said a spokesman for the Dutch association of banks (VNB), Hein Blocks. "Just because prostitution is legal now does not mean it is a respectable field." Undaunted, Mayor Cohen is urging banks to step up and approve loans for "honest" businessmen and women who want to set up their own brothels but now have no alternative but to borrow money from the district kingpins. So far, only one-third of the companies investigated have been deemed above-board and allowed to keep their operating licenses. The other two-thirds, or some 33 sex businesses that represent 20 percent of the total in all of Amsterdam, lost theirs. This last group runs about half of the estimated 200 storefront windows where prostitutes ply their trade -- and draw curious onlookers to the red-light district. Many of the sex clubs have filed appeals. They remain in business pending the court rulings, expected in February. If the municipality wins, they will be shut down permanently. For more than a century, Amsterdam's sex trade has centered on this district near the city's center and known locally as De Wallen, after the ancient city ramparts that once stood there. Its picturesque canals lined by quaint 17th-century houses vie for attention with peep-shows, sex shops and the ubiquitous store-front rooms where sex workers in skimpy lingerie sit behind red neon-lit windows offer their services. The district is so famous it has its own listing on the city's official tourism website. Not everyone supports the crackdown, notably the prostitutes' union The Red Thread. "Some 200 jobs are threatened," a Red Thread spokeswoman, Metje Blaak, told AFP. She believes the crime bosses will simply circumvent city efforts by moving from the red-light district to another area to continue illegal practices. "The situation will not get better for the women," Blaak said. One of the big bosses targeted by the drive is Charles Geerts, a former market stall holder who got his start selling porn movies and made a multi-million-euro (-dollar) fortune by investing in real estate and financing other sex businesses. Nicknamed "King of De Wallen", he is said to be the district's unofficial -- and uncompromising -- banker. The financial daily Financieele Dagblad recently gave a hint at his wealth, saying he sold off one-fifth of his prostitution empire for 3.5 million euros (4.5 million dollars). The municipality has targeted all his businesses in De Wallen. Though few details have emerged, Geerts' lawyer told Dutch media the municipality suspects his client of trying to launder money he allegedly made in the drug trade. If Geerts' appeal fails, he has threatened to close down all his windows and turn the Red Light District into a ghost town haunted by illegal prostitution, conducted outside state-certified establishments, and drug trafficking -- a scenario that would likely drive away the tourists and turn De Wallen into a no-go area overrun by dealers and street walkers trying to finance their habit. The city's crackdown relies on a Dutch law that allows officials to withdraw a license to operate a commercial establishment if the owner is suspected of criminal activities. The key is the burden of proof -- it falls entirely on businesses to show all transactions were 100 percent legal. Though banks are not exactly eager to join the clean-up, Blocks said they have promised to keep an open mind. If the drive succeeds, it's the banks after all that would get the business from "honest" investors in the lucrative sex trade. At Amsterdam city hall they are not giving up. "Prostitution is legal. We are convinced that the sex business and transparency go well together. It's difficult but it's possible," said Wooldrik. "The proof is that one-third of the businesses scrutinized were still allowed to keep their licences."
Poster Comment: Obviously an anti-terrorist program.
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#1. To: noone222 (#0)
If it wiggles, tax it.
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