The Department of Justice (DOJ) has arrested three men for running “sophisticated high-end brothels” servicing customers including “elected officials, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors, attorneys, scientists and accountants, among others.”
Per the DOJ, “[i]nterested sex buyers were allegedly required to provide employer information and references before booking appointments,” raising the possibility that the network was being utilized to gain “kompromat” on U.S. officials.
Han ‘Hana’ Lee, 41, and Junmyung Lee, 30, both of Massachusetts, and James Lee, 68, of California, have been charged with conspiracy to coerce and entice to travel to engage in illegal sexual activity for operating the brothels in greater Boston and eastern Virginia.
The network appears to have been highly lucrative, with rent for the locations it used running as high as $3,664 per month, and prostitutes being trafficked primarily from Asia.
The network’s so-called “verification process” for so-called “sex buyers,” required customers to “complete a form providing their full names, email address, phone number, employer and reference if they had one.”
None of the alleged “sex buyers” have had their identities disclosed as of the time of publication, however, despite many being high-status individuals with roles in government and access to sensitive information.
