Angry at his treatment, Chuwit told reporters he had been paying high-ranking officers 12 million baht (US$300,000) a month to keep his massage parlors up and running -- an accusation the police have denied vehemently.
Thais were stunned, but only because the claims were so open. Surveys showed 60 percent of the public lost their already low levels of confidence in the police but many believed Chuwit's comments would shame them into reducing corruption.
Then Chuwit disappeared, to be found staggering but unharmed by a truck driver two days later. He insists he was drugged and abducted, but police say it was just another publicity stunt.
"I was kidnapped by four guys. They said `stay cool, don't talk anymore,'" Chuwit said. "It was absolutely the police. They didn't ask for money, they just wanted me to stop talking."
The publicity caused a 70 percent fall in Thai clientele at Chuwit-owned Victoria's Secret, Emanuelle and Honolulu, but Hong Kong and Singapore businessmen still flock there, he said.
In the "good old days" Chuwit was making 30 million baht profit a month from each massage parlor, which all gave a full return on investment within two years. Polls show 27 percent of Thai men regularly buy sex even though prostitution is illegal.
But Chuwit's clubs, in a busy area of Bangkok housing embassies and investment banks, still receive dozens of job applications a day from budding masseuses.
Next to the account books on Chuwit's desk, one form marked "approved," came with the comments: "Average body, yellowish skin, good-looking, nice manner, beautiful breasts."
At 2,000 baht (US$50) for a basic jacuzzi and massage, a masseuse could make around 80,000 baht a month before tips for "extras," if she had three clients a day, Chuwit said.
A police sergeant's monthly salary is around 10,000 baht.
"You have to face the fact that Thailand's still a poor country. If people could earn enough, no one would sleep with someone they didn't know," Chuwit said.
"I tell the girls to save, but they have to send money to parents, aunts and uncles because they are the only earners."
With business down, only a dozen women with numbered tags sit on the red velvet steps in the "gold fish bowl," waiting for men to appear on the other side of the glass wall to make a choice.
One offers a tour of Copacabana's suites, some with three bedrooms with jacuzzis and saunas, that open onto a living room with large-screen television and a dining table.
She opened a door to a "special" room, with two giant four-poster beds and two adjacent bath tubs, and giggled, "I don't know why, but this room is really popular with policemen."
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