The founder of a “sugar daddy” dating service was arrested in Malaysia for alleged prostitution — then rearrested hours later after a “sugar baby” claimed she’d been raped on a date, according to reports.
Police first arrested the 34-year-old late Wednesday, a day after his service Sugarbook — which bills itself as “where romance meets finance” — was barred from running on Malaysia’s internet networks.
They did not identify him, but he was widely reported to be Darren Chan, whose social media profile confirms he is Sugarbook’s founder and CEO.
The initial arrest centered on alleged prostitution on the site, which openly bragged about getting thousands of university students to sign up as “sugar babies” for their “fully loaded” rich men.
Chan was released after a hearing at Shah Alam Court on Thursday — only to be rearrested the same night to help with the investigation of a woman who claimed she’d been raped in February 2019, the Straits Times said.
He was arrested to “facilitate investigations into rape and prostitution cases” involving a university student, the outlet said, with no further details.
Police have “received 74 police reports nationwide in connection with this case,” Selangor’s Senior Assistant Commander Datuk Fadzil Ahmat told the Star, without elaborating.
Sugarbook launched in 2017 to create “sugar relationships” where “both parties define what they want in a relationship in exchange for financial support,” says the website, still in operation outside Malaysia.
A Sugar Daddy has to be “fully loaded” to be able to “pamper his Sugar Baby,” who is an “individual who enjoys the finer things in life.”
“Sugarbook is made up of a large quantity of students in colleges and universities,” the site says, while others could be “a single mom or simply a goal-focused woman who seeks a higher class of life.“
“These sugar babies often benefit from the mentorship, generous allowances, exotic vacations and shopping sprees across the globe,” it states.
The service even bragged about how a Malaysian sugar baby received a Mercedes-Benz C-Class from her sugar daddy — breaking the record as “the most expensive gift ever given to a sugar baby on Sugarbook.”
Before the arrests, Chan tweeted about Malaysia banning the service and site.
“Although we do not have any form of nudity, adult content nor prostitution, we’ve lost the battle,” he wrote in a statement. “We believe that our Malaysian government knows what’s best for the people.”
Chan is due back in court Friday, the local reports said. Sugarbook did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters said.
With Post wires