Latest news with #HanLee
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A South Bay Man Who Was Part of a High-End Brothel Network Sentenced to Federal Time
A South Bay Man Who Was Part of a High-End Brothel Network Sentenced to Federal Time originally appeared on L.A. Mag. A South Bay man who federal prosecutors say was at the center of a members-only luxury brothel network that regularly flew high-end escorts to service elite clients in Los Angeles was sentenced to two years in federal prison on Thursday by a Boston judge. James Lee, 70, was an elderly pimp connected to a network of human traffickers who operated the underground sex-for-a-fee escort service that catered to wealthy and influential men in Massachusetts, Virginia, and Los Angeles. Lee was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $569,123 in connection with the fraudulently obtained COVID-19 funds and a money judgment of $63,000 related to the proceeds earned by the defendant as a result of the prostitution conspiracy, prosecutors say. Lee was arrested at his Torrence home in late 2023 with co-defendants Han Lee, 42, of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Junmyung Lee, 31, of Dedham, Massachusetts. The trio have since made deals with the government. Han Lee was sentenced to four years in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release in March, and was to forfeit nearly $5.5 million in money made by the human trafficking operation. A month later, Junmyung Lee, 32, was sentenced to one year in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. The Court also ordered a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $200,000, equal to the amount of proceeds earned by the defendant during the conspiracy. Meanwhile, white shoe defense lawyers for a plethora of 'John Does' identified in the black books of the sophisticated interstate high-end brothel network continue the fight to keep their clients' names secret from the public. "They are doctors, they are lawyers, they're accountants, they are executives at high-tech companies, pharmaceutical companies, they're military officers, government contractors, professors, scientists," former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy said at the time of the bust in November 2023. Since then, the names of a dozen clients - like Dr. Mitchell Rubenstein of Chestnut Hill, who remains on leave from his position as Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Dermatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital - have been released as prosecutors say that paid a fee to join the members only network and then ponied up anywhere from $350 to $600 an hour to have sex with Korean women. A police commander described the services this way at a court proceeding: "For example, GFE refers to a girlfriend experience, and provides a more intimate experience and blurs the boundaries between a financial transaction and relationship," said Cambridge Police Lt. Jarred Cabral. "Typically including any and all sex acts." But other names of johns who were brothel members remain a secret. "They will undoubtedly lose their jobs, lose their professions and have their lives ripped apart," attorney Benjamin Urbelis, representing five of the alleged brothel clients whose names continue to be shielded, argued before the Supreme Judicial Court. Prosecutors say Lee rented several high-end apartments in Boston and Eastern Virginia that were used as brothel locations and was the sole and legal tenant of at least six locations that were used for sexual hook-ups chosen from a menu of options advertised to the underworld outfit's members. Officials were concerned that the Koreans behind the scheme were collecting intelligence and compromising information on powerful men. A Department of Homeland Security Investigations affidavit filed by an agent in the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit pointed out that the three accused pimps - including the elderly Torrance man who ran several businesses in Los Angeles - are from a country that the U.S. considers an adversary and the money they were making selling sex was sent back to South Korea."Lee was regularly compensated by his co-conspirators for both leasing apartments and for his travel to and from the brothel locations," prosecutors say. "He also served as a liaison between the females working in the units and the property managers by fielding calls and coordinating any issues that arose relating to maintenance and inspections.""This commercial sex ring was built on secrecy and exclusivity, catering to a wealthy and well-connected clientele," Levy said at the time of its takedown. "Business was booming."Clients went through an arduous background check and submitted employment information and referrals before they could join the elite brothel club, which prosecutors say then charged rates of $350 to $600 or more per hour for prostitution services, depending on the services. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A South Bay Man Who Was Part of a High-End Brothel Network Sentenced to Federal Time
A South Bay Man Who Was Part of a High-End Brothel Network Sentenced to Federal Time originally appeared on L.A. Mag. A South Bay man who federal prosecutors say was at the center of a members-only luxury brothel network that regularly flew high-end escorts to service elite clients in Los Angeles was sentenced to two years in federal prison on Thursday by a Boston judge. James Lee, 70, was an elderly pimp connected to a network of human traffickers who operated the underground sex-for-a-fee escort service that catered to wealthy and influential men in Massachusetts, Virginia, and Los Angeles. Lee was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $569,123 in connection with the fraudulently obtained COVID-19 funds and a money judgment of $63,000 related to the proceeds earned by the defendant as a result of the prostitution conspiracy, prosecutors say. Lee was arrested at his Torrence home in late 2023 with co-defendants Han Lee, 42, of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Junmyung Lee, 31, of Dedham, Massachusetts. The trio have since made deals with the government. Han Lee was sentenced to four years in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release in March, and was to forfeit nearly $5.5 million in money made by the human trafficking operation. A month later, Junmyung Lee, 32, was sentenced to one year in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release. The Court also ordered a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $200,000, equal to the amount of proceeds earned by the defendant during the conspiracy. Meanwhile, white shoe defense lawyers for a plethora of 'John Does' identified in the black books of the sophisticated interstate high-end brothel network continue the fight to keep their clients' names secret from the public. "They are doctors, they are lawyers, they're accountants, they are executives at high-tech companies, pharmaceutical companies, they're military officers, government contractors, professors, scientists," former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy said at the time of the bust in November 2023. Since then, the names of a dozen clients - like Dr. Mitchell Rubenstein of Chestnut Hill, who remains on leave from his position as Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Dermatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital - have been released as prosecutors say that paid a fee to join the members only network and then ponied up anywhere from $350 to $600 an hour to have sex with Korean women. A police commander described the services this way at a court proceeding: "For example, GFE refers to a girlfriend experience, and provides a more intimate experience and blurs the boundaries between a financial transaction and relationship," said Cambridge Police Lt. Jarred Cabral. "Typically including any and all sex acts." But other names of johns who were brothel members remain a secret. "They will undoubtedly lose their jobs, lose their professions and have their lives ripped apart," attorney Benjamin Urbelis, representing five of the alleged brothel clients whose names continue to be shielded, argued before the Supreme Judicial Court. Prosecutors say Lee rented several high-end apartments in Boston and Eastern Virginia that were used as brothel locations and was the sole and legal tenant of at least six locations that were used for sexual hook-ups chosen from a menu of options advertised to the underworld outfit's members. Officials were concerned that the Koreans behind the scheme were collecting intelligence and compromising information on powerful men. A Department of Homeland Security Investigations affidavit filed by an agent in the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit pointed out that the three accused pimps - including the elderly Torrance man who ran several businesses in Los Angeles - are from a country that the U.S. considers an adversary and the money they were making selling sex was sent back to South Korea."Lee was regularly compensated by his co-conspirators for both leasing apartments and for his travel to and from the brothel locations," prosecutors say. "He also served as a liaison between the females working in the units and the property managers by fielding calls and coordinating any issues that arose relating to maintenance and inspections.""This commercial sex ring was built on secrecy and exclusivity, catering to a wealthy and well-connected clientele," Levy said at the time of its takedown. "Business was booming."Clients went through an arduous background check and submitted employment information and referrals before they could join the elite brothel club, which prosecutors say then charged rates of $350 to $600 or more per hour for prostitution services, depending on the services. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
California man sentenced for brothel operation in eastern Va., Boston
BOSTON, Ma. (DC News Now) — A California man was sentenced in federal court in Boston for his involvement in a sophisticated high-end brothel in the eastern Virginia and Boston area, according to a release. 70-year-old James Lee was sentenced to more than two years in prison with three years of supervised release. Woman shot at CIA headquarters in McLean charged with DUI; court documents From at least January 2022 through November 2023, James Lee conspired with two others, identified as Han Lee and Junmyung Lee, to operate a prostitution network with multiple brothels in eastern Virginia and Boston. James Lee rented several high-end apartments as the sole tenant to use as brothel locations, using his own name as well as fraudulent or stolen identities. Han Lee paid James Lee around $1,000 per month for each active lease. Han Lee also served as a liaison between the women working in the units and the property managers by fielding calls and coordinating any issues that arose relating to maintenance and inspections. James Lee and his co-conspirators knowingly conspired with one another to launder the proceeds of the prostitution network by concealing that the money was derived from the prostitution conspiracy. James Lee was arrested and charged in November 2023 with his co-defendants. The defendants were subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2024. Onlookers rescue fawn found on roadway in Carroll County In February of 2025, James Lee pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to persuade, induce, entice and coerce one or more individuals to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution; one count of money laundering conspiracy; and one count of wire fraud. James Lee was also sentenced for his involvement in fraudulently obtaining over $580,000 in COVID-19 relief funds. The Court ordered restitution in the amount of $569,123 in connection with the fraudulently obtained COVID-19 funds and a money judgment of $63,000 related to the proceeds earned by the defendant as a result of the prostitution conspiracy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Yahoo
High-end Mass. brothel booker sentenced to prison, faces deportation
A 32-year-old man who made up to $8,000 a month 'booking' trafficked women for nearly 10,000 'dates' in a high-end brothel ring operating out of Cambridge and other East Coast cities was sentenced to a year in prison. Junmyung Lee, a Korean national living in Dedham, was sentenced on Friday to one year in prison followed by one year of supervised release, by U.S. District Court Judge Julia Kobick. Lee is subject to deportation after his sentence is completed, according to U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley. Lee was also ordered to pay $200,000 in forfeiture, the amount of money he made while he worked in the brothel ring. Lee pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to persuade, induce, entice and coerce one or more individuals to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution, and one count of money laundering conspiracy. He was arrested and charged in the fall of 2023 alongside his accomplices —ring-leader Han Lee, 42, of Cambridge, and James Lee, 69, of Torrance, Calif. Han Lee was ordered to pay $5.4 million in forfeiture and sentenced to four years in prison in March. James Lee is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28. Han Lee recruited Junmyung Lee as the brothel network 'booker' in late 2021, where he was responsible for vetting and communicating with sex buyers on two cellphones, which each held over 2,800 contacts. He also brought women to and from the airport as they were trafficked across states. With the network itself generating over $5.6 million in revenue, Lee was paid between $6,000 and $8,000 a month to schedule around 9,450 'dates,' and made abut $200,000 in total, Foley said. Lee would also collect and hide the cash proceeds with structured deposits in personal bank accounts and peer-to-peer payments, then use the money to pay for brothel location rent and utilities. In a series of three public hearings last month, the names of 34 men who 'had been excessive of 400 text messages' with the brothel were revealed. Most prominently, this included Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner and Boston oncologist Dr. James Cusack Jr. Toner released a statement that said he would be 'forever sorry' for causing 'pain for the people I care about most,' and did not appear for his court hearing. Appointments out of apartments in Cambridge, Watertown and eastern Virginia were set up by the accused sex buyers through text messages to a number on a website called Cambridge Police Lt. Jarred Cabral said during the hearings. The men used code words in their texts with the brothel owners, including 'GFE' for 'girlfriend experience' and 'BB' for 'bareback,' a slang term for sexual intercourse without protection, Cabral said. The buyers often requested women by name, and their payments — which ranged from $250 for 30 minutes, to $350 for one hour and up to $840 for three hours — were called 'donations,' a usual term in the sex trade, Cabral said. All of the men who were issued criminal complaints will be sent a summons to appear for arraignments at Cambridge District Court at a later date, according to Cambridge District Court Clerk Sharon Casey. 17 phones, nearly $50,000 taken from Han Lee, Cambridge brothel ringleader Final hearings reveal more names of men implicated in Cambridge brothel Cambridge city councilor communicated with 'brothel phone' 432 times, records show
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cambridge Brothel Case: What's the Point?
Massachusetts is in the midst of prosecuting people who patronized a fancy sex business near Harvard University. It's been big news in certain corners, spawning salacious stories about the doctors, politicians, and tech executives who were on the club's client list. But the most novel thing about this prosecution is what it's missing: a wild yarn about sex slaves. The framing of this story is refreshing, after more than a decade of similar stories getting starkly different treatment. Despite many of the sex workers involved being Asian—a fact that greatly increases the odds of a prostitution bust being called a "human trafficking sting"—news reports have largely refrained from trying to portray the women involved as hapless victims of sexual servitude. Yet the absence of a trafficking narrative lays bare the hollowness of such prosecutions. Why are we doing this? Who's being served? So far, the people who ran the business—including a 42-year-old woman named Han Lee—are the only ones who have been sentenced. Lee pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to induce women into prostitution and money laundering and was sentenced in March to four years in prison. The main charge here is part of the Mann Act, a 1910 law (then referred to as the "White Slave Traffic Act") passed in response to last century's moral panic about immigration, urbanization, and women's independence. "Born into poverty in South Korea, she was a sex worker for years before becoming a madam," reports The Wall Street Journal. She thoroughly screened clients of her business, and "she allowed women to keep more than half the proceeds and decline to perform services if they chose, wrote Scott Lauer, her federal public defender." Lee is obviously harmed by this, and it seems like those she employed may be harmed, too. If the sex workers' identities are known and they are immigrants, they could be deported. Even if they escape authorities, they're out of jobs—and may be forced to turn to more dangerous or exploitative forms of sex work. Lee's prosecution does benefit one group here: federal authorities. She had to forfeit around $5.5 million to the U.S. government. Now, state and local authorities are busy prosecuting former clients of Lee's business. Their prosecution has become big news in part because of their fight to keep their identities private. Lawyers cited the "adverse and embarrassing collateral consequences" that could come from their identities being revealed publicly. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said too bad. The charges they face—"sexual conduct for a fee," a misdemeanor—and the potential legal consequences are relatively minor. It seems clear that the shaming is the point. "I would hope that them getting named makes others think about twice what they're doing," Ivette Monge of the nonprofit Ready Inspire Act told the Journal. The paper details not only the name and occupation of one particular client but how often and how much he paid for sex. Other media outlets have devoted whole articles to outing particular customers, one being a Cambridge city councilor. Americans like to pretend that we're way more enlightened than our Puritan ancestors, but here we are, hundreds of years later, putting people through public ridicule and official sanctions over their consensual sexual choices. Commentary about the case has showcased Americans' absurd attitudes toward sex work. Customers texted with "the brothel purveyors…at least 400 or more times," says a Boston Herald staff editorial. "That's obscene. This isn't a case about a few randy guys. It's prostitution on a giant scale." So…a "few randy guys" paying for sex would be OK? How many is too many, then? Or is the number of texts they sent the problem? What is the editorial's point here? (The extremely poorly written piece also includes baffling, context-free lines like this: "Only in Cambridge can one differentiate between human trafficking and illegal immigration. Too often, the two are conjoined.") At least the clients involved in this care merely face misdemeanor charges. In another Massachusetts case involving prostitution customers, authorities are trying to get sex trafficking convictions for men who contacted an undercover cop posing as an adult sex worker. In that case—Commonwealth v. Garafalo, which came before the state's supreme court in January—prospective customers responded to online ads and agreed to meet at a hotel and pay $100 for sex. The state has since argued that every person who pays for sex is guilty of sex trafficking. But prospective customers in the Cambridge brothel case—which involves higher fees, more upscale settings, and at least some prominent clientele—were not charged with sex trafficking. That's good—the state's attempt in Garafalo to expand the definition of sex trafficking to include all prostitution is despicable on its own. However, the difference in treatment between customers in these two cases highlights yet another harm: the expanded charges and punishments being disproportionately applied against lower-income defendants and/or those deemed less likely to fight back. The Swedish government wants to outlaw OnlyFans? New legislation would apply the country's prohibition on purchasing sexual services to digitally mediated activities that involve no physical contact. The proposal would distinguish making and distributing porn to people generally (OK) from performances tailored to individuals (not OK)—basically banning the system that lets sex workers take more control over their livelihoods and make more money. Facebook gets the TikTok treatment: "Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism on Wednesday," reports Axios. "The former global public policy director at Facebook, now Meta, will allege that Facebook cooperated with China's ruling Communist Party, per her opening testimony." The post Cambridge Brothel Case: What's the Point? appeared first on
