Three people arrested and charged in November 2023 in connection to brothels operating in Boston and Northern Virginia have been indicted by a federal grand jury.
Han “Hana” Lee, 41, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; James Lee, 68, of Torrance, California; and Junmyung Lee, 30, of Dedham, Massachusetts, “have each been indicted on 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,” the Department of Justice said in a news release.
According to charging documents, the defendants operated an interstate prostitution network with multiple brothels in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, as well as in Fairfax and Tysons in Virginia.
The defendants are alleged to have jointly built the infrastructure for these multiple brothels by renting high-end apartment complexes and furnishing and maintaining the locations.
The defendants also allegedly persuaded primarily Asian women to travel to Massachusetts and Virginia to engage in prostitution by coordinating their travel and allowing the women to stay at brothel locations.
They advertised their prostitution network on two websites primarily, court documents allege, with each website requiring potential clients to undergo a verification process — including requiring a form providing their full names, email addresses, phone numbers, employer and possible references.
The defendants are said to have maintained local phone numbers for the brothels, which they used to schedule appointments and send customers a “menu” of available options at the brothel. This included hourly rates which ranged from approximately $350 to upward of $600 per hour depending on the services.
It is alleged that transactions were paid in cash, which the defendants hid by using personal accounts and peer-to-peer transfers and sometimes using the cash to buy money orders to pay the rent and utilities on the apartments.
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