BOSTON — A Massachusetts woman accused of operating a high-end brothel network with wealthy and prominent clients in that state and the Washington, D.C., suburbs is set to be sentenced Wednesday.
Han Lee and two others were indicted last year on one count of conspiracy to persuade, entice, and coerce one or more individuals to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution and one count of money laundering, according to prosecutors. The operation, according to court documents, generated millions of dollars a year, and customers paid hundreds of dollars an hour for services.
Junmyung Lee of Dedham, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in October and is set to be sentenced next month. James Lee of Torrance, California, accused of renting the apartments in the operation, pleaded guilty last month to his involvement in the scheme as well as fraudulently obtaining nearly $600,000 in pandemic relief funds. He is set to be sentenced next month.
Prosecutors are demanding that Han Lee, who pleaded guilty in September, be sentenced to six years imprisonment and three years of supervised released for running “one of the most successful prostitution networks” on the East Coast. They estimate that nearly 10,000 commercial sex dates occurred in her brothels, according to court records, and that she “controlled the day-to-day operations.”
“Han profited immensely off women selling their bodies for sex and she concealed multimillions of dollars of illicit proceeds earned from her business,” Assistant United States Attorney Lindsey Weinstein wrote. “Han enticed and recruited women to travel to Massachusetts or Virginia from other states, and on thousands of occasions, directed women to have sex with strangers for money. She made a staggering total amount of money – at least $5.46 million dollars over more than four years – and used sophisticated means to hide that money from law enforcement.”
But Lee’s federal public defender, Scott Lauer, plead for leniency, saying in court documents that Lee grew up poor in South Korea and had a father who drank heavily and was abusive. After arriving in the United States, she became a sex worker in California, Las Vegas and New York before settling in Massachusetts and continuing to work in the trade.
After a brothel was raided, Han Lee saw the opportunity to set up the network. The defense contends none of the sex workers in this operation were forced to do the job and that they kept a majority of the revenues.
“While cases involving prostitution often involve some degree of force or coercion exerted against the women involved, this case does not,” Lauer wrote. “There is a world of difference between Ms. Lee — a sex worker herself — and a pimp (or madam) who enriches themselves at the expense of those performing the work. The commercial sex workers in this case were well treated and well compensated.”
Authorities said the commercial sex ring in Massachusetts and northern Virginia catered to politicians, company executives, military officers, lawyers, professors and other well-connected clients.
Nearly 30 of the buyers are appearing court this month in Cambridge, after the state’s highest court ruled last year that the hearings should be public. The first group of buyers appeared in court last week, and a second group is set to appear Friday.
The women who worked in the brothels were not identified or criminally charged and were considered victims, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said their evidence included witness testimony from women who worked at the brothels, sex buyers who made appointments or received services, physical surveillance and electronic evidence.
Han Lee maintained the operation from 2020 to November 2023. The money made at the brothels was sometimes kept in the freezer to be picked up, prosecutors said. They said she also helped train Junmyung Lee to help vet sex buyers.
The brothel operation used websites that falsely claimed to advertise nude models for professional photography, prosecutors allege. The operators rented high-end apartments to use as brothels in Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Tysons and Fairfax, Virginia, prosecutors said. Brothels were maintained at four locations in Massachusetts and two in Virginia.
According to court documents, the defendants established house rules for the women during their stays in a given city to protect and maintain the secrecy of the business and ensure the women did not draw attention to the prostitution work inside apartment buildings.
Each website described a verification process that interested sex buyers undertook to be eligible for appointment bookings, including requiring clients to complete a form providing their full names, email addresses, phone numbers, employers and references if they had one, authorities said.
