For years, everyone believed that 37-year-old para-athlete Adam Kamis was an inspirational figure, representing Singapore at the Commonwealth Games in addition to being a motivational speaker.
The one-armed runner however held some dark secrets that was only exposed to public after his arrest in October last year. Adam had meticulously masterminded and ran an illicit enterprise of prostitution spanning over two years since 2013.
The man was finally convicted of charges of procuring and trying to procure women for prostitution, as well as recruiting a child for sexual exploitation. He had pleaded guilty earlier on to 11 charges under the Women’s Charter and one charge under the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act, The Straits Times reports.
Adam had been a prominent figure in the world of sports, participating in track and field, ultra-distance running and multi-disciplinary triathlon events. This despite having one of his arms amputated and the other paralyzed after a motorcycle accident in 2003.
His reputation however didn’t stop him from launching a career in crime. Having gone into debt in early 2013, Adam set up a social escort agency called SG Freelancers, where he would recruit women and offer their sexual services to people.
He passed himself off as one of the social escorts working for the agency as “Angel Tan”, creating a Facebook account for his persona and reached out to random women on social media platforms. He offered a high income freelance job — one that would entail engaging in protected sex and other sexual services to customers.
Adam’s screening process of interested parties was meticulous. They had to fill in a sexually explicit questionnaire detailing their particulars and preferences, send in photographs and attend interviews at his flat in Yishun.
He would introduce himself as a handler of SG Freelancers at his flat, and brief the women on the agency, work processes, expected renumeration as well as strict rules and regulations. Though he did not expect commission for the first client they serviced, a commission ranging from five to 50 percent would be taken from subsequent clients.
The next level in his interview process would include him inspecting the condition of their naked bodies to look for anything not declared in the questionnaire. They would then need to provide him with the services they were willing to provide to clients — only those who performed satisfactorily would be accepted.
Once all that was done, online profiles for them would be created on Craigslist and Locanto to advertise their services.
A total of 34 women — aged from 17 to 39 years — responded to his recruiting advertisements. His enterprise however wasn’t a prosperous one — he only secured five clients throughout the two-and-a-half years he ran it. He received no commission as none of them had serviced more than one client.
The prosecution is seeking a jail sentence of 38 months for Adam, noting his detailed planning as well as a sophisticated, multi-tiered recruitment process.
His attention to details would have been impressive too if not for the vile nature of his illicit endeavour. He will be sentenced on June 27.
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