The U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts announced Monday that it is seeking complaints against 28 alleged "sex buyers" weeks after announcing the bust of a "high-end brothel network" operating in the state.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said on Nov. 8 that three people were being charged in an alleged prostitution ring out of Massachusetts and Virginia.
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Monday, Levy's office signaled that it was looking to bring charges against the ring's clients, as well.
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"Our office made it clear when we announced charges of a commercial sex ring case on Nov. 8, 2023, that the investigation was ongoing and that there would be accountability for the buyers who fuel the commercial sex industry," Levy said in a statement. "Today, a Homeland Security Investigations Task Force Officer with the Cambridge Police Department submitted applications for complaints against 28 sex buyers with the Cambridge District Court."
Levy previously said that the list of alleged clients included politicians, professors, military officers and pharmaceutical executives.
"Until probable cause has been found, no names will be released," Levy's statement continued. "If probable cause is established and criminal charges are issued by the Court, referrals will then be made to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office."
Prosecutors have said the alleged brothel network likely generated upwards of $1 million in just a few years for Han Lee — the 41-year-old Cambridge woman accused of running it — 30-year-old Junmyung Lee of Dedham, her employee and co-defendant. James Lee, 68, of Torrance, California, was also arrested last month.
The defendants have been charged with violating federal sex trafficking law for allegedly running a secret and exclusive brothel that functioned as a kind of club, offering clients menus of women and services for meet-ups at rented luxury apartments in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, and in northern Virginia near Washington, D.C.
Two U.S. bank accounts for Han Lee brought in $965,000 between December 2019 and this October, the vast majority in cash, according to a document filed last month, an affidavit filed by a Department of Homeland Security Investigations special agent who reviewed the evidence. She is believed to have access to other accounts, including a South Korean one that brought in another nearly $90,000, and the accounts of her estranged husband.
"I do not believe that HAN has legitimate employment, but I do believe she has made an astounding amount of money running her prostitution business over the last several years," the agent wrote in the affidavit.
More on the high-end sex ring bust
She never appeared to have legitimate work while being watched by investigators, though she claimed on two rental applications to make upwards of $9,000 as a medical director for one company and, for a South Korean manufacturing association.
Han's "financial and business record keeping was impeccable," the agent wrote, noting she stored hundreds of organized money orders in a shoebox on a shelf at her Cambridge apartment, one of nine locations searched by investigators. The shoebox was for $1,360 Louis Vuitton shoes, and she allegedly had other designer bags and shoes as well, from brands like Balenciaga, Christian Louboutin and Givenchy.
Also found in Han's apartment, according to the affidavit, were:
- condoms and lubricants in bulk
- lingerie
- UTI and pregnancy testing kits
- mouthwash
- $22,000 in cash
- ledgers and other financial records, including money order receipts
- dozens of gift cards
- sixteen cellphones
One of those cellphones was connected to a number listed on a website for the northern Virginia-based brothel, the affidavit said, and a search of one of the phones' communications described customers, services and pricing and schedules, as well as house rules.
At his Dedham apartment, Junmyung, who wrote on a rental application that he was a student but is accused of working for Han, had the cellphone connected to the Boston brothel's website, according to the affidavit, along with five other phones, a Corvette allegedly bought with proceeds from the prostitution business and ledgers — "appointment books documenting daily scheduling of women at the various brothel locations in both Boston and Virginia."
Three of the units allegedly hosting the sex ring were in one building in Cambridge, in a residential/commercial area near commuter train tracks.
Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673, and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide and resources for sexual assault survivors.
