Police raided a gigolo training center in Panchiao and arrested nine of the school's operators for overcharging students, officials said yesterday.
The operators allegedly inflated tuition bills by adding in expensive clothes and mobile phones, police officer Liu Tai-shun said. They were also accused of having links to organized crime, Liu said.
Classes were held in an apartment building in Panchiao, Liu said.
During the raid on Wednesday night, police officers seized fancy clothes, earrings and lecture notes as evidence, officers said.
The school's operators ran classified ads offering ``well-paid moonlighting jobs'' and collected up to NT$200,000 for several weeks of training courses, police said.
"The ads had good results. The school received more than 200 applications in just two weeks," Liu said.
Men can legally work as hosts in bars and clubs, but it's illegal to solicit sex from customers.
A local newspaper reported that the school gave lectures on eloquence, posture, dancing and popular games played at gigolo bars for the potential "male public relations workers," a Taiwanese term for gigolos.
"They were also lectured on taboos at the bars, such as wearing white socks, smoking while walking or walking across the dance floor," it said.
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