Metro
One banker owns half the buildings housing Flushing's alleged brothels
A millionaire banker once hailed as a financial savior to Flushing’s Chinese immigrants owns half of the buildings housing alleged brothels on prostitution-plagued 40th Road.
“There is a nucleus and we happen to be at the center of it,” Eugene Morimoto Tsai told The New York Times about his father’s Asia Bank and their burgeoning Queens real-estate business in 2006.
Now the Tsais are at the nucleus of a hooker hotbed.
Four of the eight addresses identified as alleged houses of prostitution by business owners on the block between Prince and Main streets are owned by the 42-year-old and his father, Jentai Tsai, through their Asia Plaza Corp.
Although reps for the Tsais have claimed they did not know what their tenants were up to, large numbers of fines have piled up on their properties.
The bustling commercial district — a stone’s throw from Citi Field and an MTA/LIRR station — is overrun with Asian women propositioning men on the street in plain sight.
Councilman Peter Koo and local business owners have called for an NYPD crackdown.
The elder Tsai, Chinese but raised in Taiwan, founded Asia Bank in the 1980s and backed immigrant entrepreneurs who couldn’t secure loans from American banks. Asia Bank later sold for $126 million to Cathay Bank. His son spent part of his career at Goldman Sachs.
But while the pair accumulated rank and wealth, their buildings on 40th Road racked up seamy tenants and violations.
At 135-20 40th Road, Asia Plaza Corp. was hit with violations for an unauthorized massage parlor in 2013 and 2017, among 23 total violations since 2013. The NYPD said it has made three prostitution-related arrests there. On Feb. 9, a Post reporter was led to a fifth-floor massage parlor at the address and was offered sex for cash from a woman named “Sissy.”
Cops made eight arrests at 135-32 40th Road, where a prostitute jumped to her death in 2017 to evade an NYPD sting.
135-28 40th Road has been hit with illegal massage parlor violations in 2008 and 2017, among 16 total violations since 2005.
At 135-24 40th Road, the DOB has issued 11 violations, including for an illicit massage parlor in 2013. The building was flagged in 2008 for stuffing in more families than legally allowed, a $9,037 fine. Three years later it was accused of operating as a “transient hotel.”
The NYPD filed nuisance abatement cases — in which the city padlocks a location where illegal activity regularly takes place — against at least two of the Tsais’ buildings, 135-32 (in 2016) and 135-20 40th Road (on Feb. 6).
It also filed nuisance abatement cases against two other 40th Road buildings housing brothels this month, at 135-05 and 135-25, a department spokesman said. The actions came days after a Post report on the alleged sex market.
The NYPD is also searching for a man who illegally removed a security camera on Feb. 17 that was installed by a business owner to catch johns and hookers on the sidewalk, after footage was published by The Post.
While his buildings blight Flushing, the elder Tsai, 85, enjoys the lap of luxury in a $1.9 million Cresskill, NJ, mansion, and donates thousands to city politicians, records show.
Koo, a Tsai beneficiary, called him a “reputable guy” who is “starting to remove all the violations.
“We want to make sure from now on he will rent out to good tenants, not unlawful tenants,” Koo said.
Tsai’s wife, Kay Morimoto, speaking as bookkeeper for Asia Plaza Corp., said her husband heard about the prostitution “a long time ago, but not recently. They tried to evict them. It’s a very difficult thing. Those people are very tricky, once they lease it they do all kinds of stuff, and I guess Mr. Tsai has a headache over it.”
She said her son Eugene is the current president of Asia Plaza Corp. He did not return a message seeking comment.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
One banker owns half the buildings housing Flushing's alleged brothels
A millionaire banker once hailed as a financial savior to Flushing’s Chinese immigrants owns half of the buildings housing alleged brothels on prostitution-plagued 40th Road.
“There is a nucleus and we happen to be at the center of it,” Eugene Morimoto Tsai told The New York Times about his father’s Asia Bank and their burgeoning Queens real-estate business in 2006.
Now the Tsais are at the nucleus of a hooker hotbed.
Four of the eight addresses identified as alleged houses of prostitution by business owners on the block between Prince and Main streets are owned by the 42-year-old and his father, Jentai Tsai, through their Asia Plaza Corp.
Although reps for the Tsais have claimed they did not know what their tenants were up to, large numbers of fines have piled up on their properties.
The bustling commercial district — a stone’s throw from Citi Field and an MTA/LIRR station — is overrun with Asian women propositioning men on the street in plain sight.
Councilman Peter Koo and local business owners have called for an NYPD crackdown.
The elder Tsai, Chinese but raised in Taiwan, founded Asia Bank in the 1980s and backed immigrant entrepreneurs who couldn’t secure loans from American banks. Asia Bank later sold for $126 million to Cathay Bank. His son spent part of his career at Goldman Sachs.
But while the pair accumulated rank and wealth, their buildings on 40th Road racked up seamy tenants and violations.
At 135-20 40th Road, Asia Plaza Corp. was hit with violations for an unauthorized massage parlor in 2013 and 2017, among 23 total violations since 2013. The NYPD said it has made three prostitution-related arrests there. On Feb. 9, a Post reporter was led to a fifth-floor massage parlor at the address and was offered sex for cash from a woman named “Sissy.”
Cops made eight arrests at 135-32 40th Road, where a prostitute jumped to her death in 2017 to evade an NYPD sting.
135-28 40th Road has been hit with illegal massage parlor violations in 2008 and 2017, among 16 total violations since 2005.
At 135-24 40th Road, the DOB has issued 11 violations, including for an illicit massage parlor in 2013. The building was flagged in 2008 for stuffing in more families than legally allowed, a $9,037 fine. Three years later it was accused of operating as a “transient hotel.”
The NYPD filed nuisance abatement cases — in which the city padlocks a location where illegal activity regularly takes place — against at least two of the Tsais’ buildings, 135-32 (in 2016) and 135-20 40th Road (on Feb. 6).
It also filed nuisance abatement cases against two other 40th Road buildings housing brothels this month, at 135-05 and 135-25, a department spokesman said. The actions came days after a Post report on the alleged sex market.
The NYPD is also searching for a man who illegally removed a security camera on Feb. 17 that was installed by a business owner to catch johns and hookers on the sidewalk, after footage was published by The Post.
While his buildings blight Flushing, the elder Tsai, 85, enjoys the lap of luxury in a $1.9 million Cresskill, NJ, mansion, and donates thousands to city politicians, records show.
Koo, a Tsai beneficiary, called him a “reputable guy” who is “starting to remove all the violations.
“We want to make sure from now on he will rent out to good tenants, not unlawful tenants,” Koo said.
Tsai’s wife, Kay Morimoto, speaking as bookkeeper for Asia Plaza Corp., said her husband heard about the prostitution “a long time ago, but not recently. They tried to evict them. It’s a very difficult thing. Those people are very tricky, once they lease it they do all kinds of stuff, and I guess Mr. Tsai has a headache over it.”
She said her son Eugene is the current president of Asia Plaza Corp. He did not return a message seeking comment.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
