Since at least July 2020, prosecutors allege that Han Lee, 41, James Lee, 68, and Junmyung Lee, 30, ran brothels that advertised primarily Asian women under the guise that they were nude models selling their services to professional photographers. The three were charged with conspiracy to coerce and entice to travel to engage in illegal sexual activity.
The brothels’ clients, which prosecutors allege could number in the hundreds, also included tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, professors, lawyers, scientists and accountants, according to court filings, which did not name any of the alleged clients.
“Pick a profession; they’re probably represented in this case,” said acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy at a news conference Wednesday. “They are the men who fueled this commercial sex ring.”
The clients, an affidavit alleges, paid the defendants as much as $600 to engage in sexual activities with women whose nude or semi-nude pictures, height, weight and other i