At press time tonight, police have confirmed to Amandala that prominent massage therapist and acupuncturist, Kevin Lee, a Taiwanese/Belizean businessman who owns several chiropractic establishments in Belize City, remains detained by Los Angeles (LA) authorities.
Police allege that Lee has recorded over six thousand videos of his clients in intimate, compromising moments, without their knowledge.
On the local front, these allegations were kept under wraps by police because Lee had absconded from the country after learning that the police had discovered his operation.
It appears that Police had received these reports as early as September 2011, and had evidence to support the allegations, but had to keep the information “under wraps”, purportedly because if they had broadcasted that Lee was being actively sought, he would have perhaps taken measures to permanently elude their grasp, since he had already fled the country.
Taiwanese news media have reported that Lee had been arrested since Monday on a warrant from Interpol. The warrant was issued after complaints emerged from Belize that Lee had been engaged in a clandestine video operation. It was alleged that he videotaped his clients getting undressed in his clinic establishments around the city.
The case took on an even higher profile because several of the complaints to Belizean authorities came from diplomats and well-known members of the public.
Belize police confirmed to Amandala that Lee fled the country after these complaints were brought forward. A warrant was issued for his arrest, and it is expected that he will be returned to Belize, where he will face charges for the allegations. The severity of those charges is currently not known due to outdated Belizean privacy laws.
Police have refused to confirm, but we have been reliably informed that Lee shot these videos of his clients and patrons getting undressed using strategically placed cameras in his establishments. He stored these videos on large external hard drives, some of which the police have been able to confiscate.
Because this is an active case, the scope of content in these videos is currently not known, but it has been suggested to us that they range from simple undressing to very sensual and suggestive massaging, to possibly more intimate activity.
There are other serious allegations that have been made, but because the police have refused to comment on it, they cannot be published. Another unclear matter in this case is the timeline of events that prompted police intervention.
The way that the videos came into the police’s hands also remains unclear to us, but the police have told us that they received complaints from diplomats and dignitaries assigned to our country, who were patrons of Lee’s.
The international media have also reported that these videos have been published on the internet by an unknown person who was attempting to blackmail Lee.
We’ve not been able to find evidence that some of these videos have been published, as was reported by some international media houses.
Police are waiting for Lee to be sent back to Belize.
We spoke to several attorneys on the topic of the severity of Lee’s actions and the charges that can be levied against him. The attorneys have told us that due to our outdated privacy laws, there is not much that the courts can do to him, especially if he didn’t disseminate the videos as a form of pornography.
Our best indications at this point are that he kept these videos private.