Background: YouTube screengrab from CBS affiliate WBZ footage of high-end apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts where prosecutors say three men operated one branch of an elite and extensive sex ring spanning at least cities in Massachusetts and two in Virginia. Inset: WBZ YouTube screengrab of brothel map graphic.
Three people have been arrested for running an extensive network of elite brothels and sex trafficking rings out of high-end apartment buildings in Massachusetts and Virginia.
Charged with conspiracy to coerce and entice to travel to engage in illegal sexual activity, prosecutors say Han Lee, aka “Hana,” 41, of Cambridge, Mass., James Lee, 68, of Torrance, Calif.; and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Dedham, Mass., ran the sex ring since July 2020, at least.
With the illicit operations hiding in plain sight, federal prosecutors said patrons would pay up to $600 an hour for services in apartments with average leases of $3,300 a month. The trafficked women were predominantly Asian women who authorities claim were lured or coerced by the operators and then sold off by the hour to well-heeled customers who frequented the bordellos in elite neighborhoods like Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Brothels were also allegedly operating out of Dedham and Watertown, Massachusetts as well as in a cushy areas of northern Virginia like Tysons and Fairfax.
“Business was booming until today,” acting Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said at a press conference Wednesday.
The identities of the so-called “johns” were not revealed but Levy said there are hundreds of them and that their names may be public in the future. So far, none have been charged.
Levy also said the brothels were allegedly promoted through two websites, “BostonTop10.com” and “Browneyesgirls.va.blog.”
The websites advertised the women as professional nude models but prosecutors say that was just a cover. By using these websites to exploit and traffic women to wealthy and well-connected individuals, Levy said prospective clients had to provide extensive information to the brothel operators including their real identification as well as credit card information.
Some clients also paid monthly “club” membership fees and Levy said clients would have a wide array of services they could choose from thanks to a “menu” provided by the defendants online or via text.
According to court records, authorities were only able to assess the brothel’s clientele base because the accused operators made all of their prospective customers share their employment information as well as references in a screening process, too.
“They’re doctors, lawyers, accountants. They are executives at high-tech companies, pharmaceutical companies; they are military officers, government contractors, professors, scientists. Pick a profession, they are probably represented in this case,” Levy said Wednesday.
During the press conference, he also mentioned that elected officials were in the mix too, although he did not disclose any identification nor did he say when or if that would occur.
The defendants would allegedly funnel their profits in their personal bank accounts and they are accused of regularly using cash proceeds to purchase money orders under a certain amount that would not trigger reporting requirements.
“These money orders were then used to pay for rent and utilities at brothel locations in Massachusetts and Virginia,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement accompanying Levy’s announcement of the bust.
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