Yab Yum
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Yab Yum is one of the best-known and most exclusive brothels in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.[1] Located in a canal house on the Singel, it mostly caters to business men and foreign visitors. A second Yab Yum operated for a while in Rotterdam[2], but has since been closed.
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[edit] Operation
As of 2005, the entrance fee was 70 Euros, which includes a drink. Sex for one hour costs 300 Euros, but typically requires in addition the purchase of an expensive bottle of champagne.
From its beginning in the 1980s[3] until the legalization of brothels in 2000, the Yab Yum operated as a "licenced club with no members" and was tolerated according to police guidelines, as long as no drugs and no violence was involved.[1] The club has tried to get students as employees, advertising in student newspapers.[4]
In anticipation of the official legalization of brothels on October 1, 2000, Yab Yum owner Theo Heuft applied to open a "relax service" at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, to offer exclusive food, drink and massages to travelers. When he was turned down, he filed a lawsuit.[2] The airport brothel was never opened.
In 1997 it was reported that a woman earned up to $10,000 per month working at Yab Yum, tax free. Anticipating stricter regulation, the club agreed to pay taxes for its 55 employees starting January 1, 1998.[5]
[edit] Ownership and scandals
The club has repeatedly been mentioned in connection with corruption affairs. In 1998 it was alleged that a director of a brokerage house regularly obtained insider information by inviting senior executives to Yab Yum.[6] In 2002 a former manager of a building company alleged that civil servants were commonly bribed with visits to Yab Yum.[7]
In 1990 the major drug trafficker Klaas Bruinsma and his associate Roy Adkins fought in the club after one of their operations had gone sour; shots were fired but nobody was injured and nobody talked to the police. Adkins was assassinated later that year and Bruinsma was shot to death in 1991.[8] A newspaper article in 2006 reported that true ownership of the brothel had long been in the hands of mafia figures, beginning with Klaas Bruinsma, who called it "the club house". After Bruinsma's death, his associates Sam Klepper and John Mieremet took over, along with the Dutch Hells Angels.[3] Klepper was murdered in 2000; Mieremet survived an assassination attempt in 2002 and was murdered in 2005.
[edit] Name
"Yab-Yum" is Tibetan for "father-mother" and describes a symbol in Buddhist and Hinduist art showing a male and female god in sexual union.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Elizabeth Grice: "Three kinds of prostitution flourish in Amsterdam." The Daily Telegraph, 24 April 1992, page 13.
- ^ a b Bordello suing for right to open branch at Amsterdam airport. The Associated Press, 2 February 2000
- ^ a b Yab Yum: exclusief én crimineel, ‘Ook eigenaar Yab Yum afgeperst’. BN DeStem, 3 May 2006. (Dutch)
- ^ Bordello goes in search of brains. The Independent, 9 September 1992.
- ^ Dutch prostitutes face new menace: the tax man. Associated Press, 4 October 1997
- ^ Insider dealings and laundering cast pall on Amsterdam exchange. Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 1 January 1998
- ^ Raids in Building Fraud Probe. Het Financieele Dagblad, 20 March 2002
- ^ Dutch killing reopens files on traffickers. The Independent, 11 May 1992.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
