VANCOUVER – B.C. billionaire David Ho spends his sleepless nights prowling Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for prostitutes, claiming he wants to save them from the streets.
The chain-smoking tycoon, who was charged on Monday with confining and attacking a woman he met on a chat line, considers himself a chronic insomniac who often sleeps for less than 10 hours a week.
He doesn’t care how young or old the sex workers are – or what they look like – and often invites them to his palatial home, into his car or to his pad downtown. Sometimes he drives them back to their filthy rundown homes on skid row.
"It’s worse when it rains . . . that’s when I get into the car and go looking for them," said Ho, the heir of one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families and the former owner of the now-defunct Harmony Airlines.
Ho, a former member of the Vancouver Police Board, has had several run-ins with Vancouver cops.
In all the cases, he was with drug-addicted prostitutes. In November 2006, police found what they believed was cocaine in his car.
The "truth," Ho said, is that he is addicted to Vancouver’s drug-dependent prostitutes.
"I am addicted to helping them," he said.
Vancouver police officers describe Ho’s comments as "hogwash."
On Monday, Vancouver police backed up that belief by announcing a slew of charges against the prominent philanthropist and businessman.
The charges – the results of a "complex investigation" – stem from an incident that took place on Dec. 28, 2008.
Like the other cases, this one also involved a woman tied to the sex trade.
So which Ho are we dealing with? A weirdo with a penchant for street hookers or a caped crusader in a Porsche Cayenne?
Vancouver police seem to have made up their minds.
But those close to Ho swear the man has been quietly helping young women involved in drugs and the sex trade for about six years.
They claim that he has written cheques for up to $15,000 to women who have lost their teeth, to pay for dental work.
He apparently has helped a University of B.C. professor get her daughter off the Vancouver streets. He has never made this work public and only his closest aides and confidantes know about the philanthropy that got him in trouble, one of his aides said Monday.
"I don’t know what to think. I have seen him try so hard to help some of these girls and I know for sure he has helped many young girls," she said.
"He has some enemies and I feel really sad today . . . he has a good heart."
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