Four men were arrested by the Haidian procuratorate in Beijing on Wednesday, for duping young women, some of them minors, into working as prostitutes, the Beijing News said on Friday.

The two chief suspects, Hu Weidong and Meng Zhibang, are accused of posing as the operators of the modeling firm Yuanyuan Film and Video Studio. However, when women applied to join, they were told they had to abide by the "hidden rule" of the modeling industry and have sex with the two men, prosecutors said.

The case came to light after two women, 18-year-old twins Baobao and A Zi, posted a "Letter to Zhang Weigang, director of Haidian public security bureau" on their blog on May 30. In it they described how they were duped by Hu and Meng and forced to work as prostitutes.

The letter went on to say Hu and Meng controlled more than 100 young girls, most of them minors.

"They used their 'hidden rule' as an excuse to have sex with the girls, and made videotapes to blackmail them with. Then they arranged for the girls to have sex with so-called 'investors in the studio'," the letter said.

Zhang has ordered the case to be investigated, the report said.

(China Daily July 12, 2008)