EXCLUSIVE
A millionaire brothel owner who was found dead alongside her lover aboard a luxury yacht may have been involved in sex trafficking and financial irregularities before her death.
The bodies of Lixin Wang and her on-off boyfriend Peter Ray were found side by side on a bed in the cabin of their $250,000 yacht off Cammeray on Sydney’s north coast on Wednesday night.
Police were called to the scene by a concerned friend who said they had been unable to contact the couple since they boarded the yacht for a night together on Monday.
Firefighters initially boarded the 47-foot vessel, known as the Taloha, wearing breathing apparatus amid concerns about a possible leak of noxious gas on board.
Police then searched the yacht and discovered the couple, along with a number of items of interest, including illegal drugs, in the main cabin at the front of the boat.
Ms Wang has, at different times, operated four brothels in Sydney, most recently including Xanadu Heaven and the Flamingo Club Bondi, which are still registered at the same address in Sydney’s north.
The 60-year-old is understood to have taken over management of the Flamingo Club after its former owner, Luke Nesbit, was arrested for drug dealing last year.
Avid sailor Peter Ray was found dead alongside his on-and-off girlfriend Lixin Wang
Police raided the Taloha after a concerned friend was unable to reach Peter Ray by phone.
The lifeless bodies of Peter Ray and Lixin Wang were found inside the cabin of their yacht.
Lixin Wang recently sold his sprawling Sydney Harbourfront mansion for $16 million.
A former employee, who worked at the Flamingo for two years before quitting last November, said the new owner, a “Chinese woman” believed to be Ms Wang, had brought a sinister tone to the business..
“That’s when everything got very, very dark and very dangerous,” the employee said.
‘Eight weeks after I left, she closed the doors for good and misappropriated funds.
‘She owed the girls huge amounts of money; she owed one of them $8,000 for six months.
‘He basically trafficked another girl and refused to pay her.
‘He also refused to allow me to disclose to clients that a post-op trans woman was working there.’
Ms. Wang also operated Lixin Wang Xanadu Massage, whose business registration was cancelled last August following the sale of the Xanadu Massage property address for more than $16 million.
He had purchased the five-bedroom, four-bathroom mansion overlooking the water in Middle Harbour for just under $10 million a decade ago, and is believed to own several properties in Sydney.
The former owner of the Flamingo Club was forced to sell the brothel after being caught with almost 500kg of methylamphetamine in a police operation.
The operation came after police established Strikeforce Maneela investigated Nesbit’s drug dealing and was granted a wiretap warrant.
Undercover agents monitored the 38-year-old man supplying a total of 33.75g of cocaine and 13.11g of methylamphetamine over a two-week period in April 2022.
He was arrested the following month after wiretaps revealed he was planning a $50,000 drug deal in Canley Vale.
After monitoring the exchange, the police arrested him with a heat-sealed plastic bag containing 496 g of methylamphetamine with a purity of 78 percent.
Nesbit was sentenced to three years and two months in prison for commercial drug supply last year.
He was released from prison on February 24, but will remain on parole until September 25, 2025.
Inside the Flamingo Club, a brothel that Lixin Wang had been running in Bondi Junction
A former Flamingo Club staff member says Lixin Wang introduced a dangerous element into the brothel
The photo that Bondi Junction mall killer Joel Cauchi hoped would get him a job as a prostitute
This is not the first time that the Flamingo Club has made headlines for the wrong reasons.
The brothel was linked to another tragedy earlier this year after another former employee revealed that Bondi Junction shopping centre shooter Joel Cauchi had applied to work there in the months leading up to his murderous rampage.
She said she had been running the now-closed brothel in August last year when she received a “strange” request from a man called “Joel”.
‘Joel’ had sent a photo of himself wearing a tight-fitting Manchester United football club shirt, sitting astride a chair with his arms crossed, stating that he would be “open to serving both men and women”.
“I told my friend, ‘obviously this guy is an amateur,’ because this is a job, this is a business, and if you want to be taken seriously, you have to present yourself as such,” she said.
“We complain because that’s what we do. I said, ‘Look at this guy, my God, he’s delusional,’ and my friend said, ‘Who the hell would pay for that?’
“I thought, ‘What the hell, these aren’t the Green Street vandals. Are you trying to sell sex using this photo? You’re not endearing yourself to anyone.'”
Despite his immediate reaction, the employee sent ‘Joel’ a polite response, telling him that they did not accept men in the establishment, but suggested that they could work out a “reservation only” arrangement if there was interest in him.
Detective Inspector Siobhan Munro said on Thursday that police were still investigating the deaths of Ms Wang and Mr Ray.
“Nothing has been ruled out at the moment,” he said. “We don’t know what happened. We are still making enquiries.”
The couple are not known to have suffered any physical injuries and a gas leak and drug overdose are among the lines of investigation.
Mr Ray, a registered plumber, was preparing to enter Taloha in the Airlie Beach Race Week, which starts next Thursday, and had spent the past 18 months refurbishing the boat as a “project of love” since purchasing it in 2022.
The 56-year-old had been an avid yachtsman with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, which organises the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race, and had previously owned several yachts, with names including TEAZ, The Plumbers, Big Teaz and Barely Legal.
His ex-wife, Andrea, remembered Mr. Ray as a devoted father to three children, ages 29, 27 and 19.
She revealed she was planning to move to Queensland next Wednesday to “start fresh” and had packed the boat for the trip.
According to a boating expert with personal knowledge of Taloha, the concern about fumes suggests a gas leak from the galley’s cooking equipment or carbon monoxide from the engine or a heater.
“Each vessel requires a gas certificate that must be renewed every 10 years,” he explained.
“(A gas leak) is not unheard of. It has happened before, and (especially) if the ship was completely closed because it was cold. What a terrible tragedy!”
Police took several identified items from the boat for forensic examination as two bodies were seen being carried off the boat on stretchers.
An autopsy will be carried out in the coming days to confirm the identity of the man and woman and determine the cause of death.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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