The sophisticated brothel network allegedly operating in the Boston and Washington, D.C., areas that was announced in a bombshell news conference on Wednesday served people from politicians to professors, federal prosecutors said.
But who those sex buyers were remained a mystery on Thursday. Federal authorities were mum on the subject at the news conference, saying that any arrests for the purchase of sex would happen at the state level — the three people charged this week are accused of violating federal sex trafficking law.
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The brothel, "built on secrecy and exclusivity," functioned as a kind of club, offering clients menus of women, predominantly Asian, and services for meet-ups at rented luxury apartments in Cambridge and Watertown, Mass., as well as northern Virginia, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy announced. The high-profile customers paid a membership fee and submitted documents, including driver's license photos, to be verified for the chance to pay up to $600 an hour for sex, under the guise of modeling shoots.
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NBC10 Boston has reached out to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, which prosecutes state crimes in Cambridge in Watertown, to learn whether the office is working to bring charges in the investigation.
Sex trafficking survivors and a former prosecutor who spoke with NBC10 Boston Thursday said the sex buyers should be charged.
"Anyone who breaks the law, their name should be in the paper as well, because if the buyer didn't show up, this body wouldn't have been sold," said Audrey Morrissey, a survivor who is now the co-executive director of My Life My Choice, a nonprofit working to end commercial sexual exploitation.
What law enforcement has said about the clients is that they were identified "through surveillance, phone records, customer interviews, and other investigative methods," according to an affidavit filed in court.
They would arrive at the apartments, where the door would open by the sex worker inside without the client knocking, according to the affidavit. After the customer gave the agreed-upon payment in cash, they undressed in the bedroom and were brought to the bathroom, where they were offered mouthwash and a shower.
"These customers spanned a wide array of different professional disciplines. Some of these professional disciplines included, but are not limited to, politicians, pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors, lawyers, business executives, technology company executives, scientists, accountants, retail employees, and student."
The document noted that there could be hundreds more customers who haven't been identified by investigators.
While authorities noted that elected officials were among the hundreds of clients of the sex ring — "pick a profession, they are probably represented in this case," Levy said at the news conference — they didn't share any information about their identities. But Levy stressed that that could change, with the investigation continuing.
More arrests will take time, said Lauren Hersh, a former New York prosecutor who ran a sex trafficking unit.
"The feds will prosecute the three defendants and then there will be hundreds of sex buyers who have been operating by purchasing sex from these women in these locations and the state will have to decide how to proceed," said Hersh, who now works for World Without Exploitation.
The investigation began with a tip from local law enforcement last summer, Levy said. The people behind the alleged scheme required clients to verify their identities by sharing their driver's license photo, employer information and credit card number, as well as paying a monthly fee.
Three of the units allegedly hosting the sex ring were in one building in Cambridge, in a residential/commercial area near commuter train tracks.
Han Lee, of Cambridge, Mass.; James Lee, of Torrance, Calif.; and Junmyung Lee, of Dedham, Mass., were charged on prostitution charges, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in federal court. It wasn't immediately clear if they had attorneys who could speak to the charges.
