By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -A Massachusetts woman pleaded guilty on Friday to running a high-end brothel network in the greater Boston area and the suburbs of Washington that served wealthy and well-connected clientele including politicians, corporate executives, lawyers and military officers.
Han Lee appeared in Boston federal court to plead guilty to charges that she conspired to persuade, induce and entice primarily Asian women to travel to Massachusetts and Virginia to engage in prostitution and committed money laundering.
She was the first to admit wrongdoing of the three individuals who prosecutors charged in November in connection with a sex ring run out of apartment complexes in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts and Fairfax and Tysons, Virginia.
Lee, 42, faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 20. She stressed when addressing U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick that while she ran an illegal prostitution business, she did not force any women to engage in sex work.
"I simply want to emphasize that I did not control the women," she said through a Korean interpreter.
Another defendant, Junmyung Lee, is slated to plead guilty on Oct. 30. The third defendant, James Lee, has pleaded not guilty but is in talks to resolve his case, according to court records.
Prosecutors say clients paid $350 to $600 per hour for sexual encounters with women featured on two websites that advertised nude models for professional photography as a front for Han Lee's prostitution business, which had operated since at least 2020.
Authorities have estimated the network's customer base was in the hundreds and say it included elected officials, pharmaceutical and technology executives, doctors, military officers, professors, lawyers, business executives, scientists and accountants.
No client has been identified. Federal prosecutors after announcing the case pursued referrals to local authorities for potential state-level charges in Massachusetts and Virginia against the alleged customers.
In December, Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said authorities were seeking state-level charges against 28 alleged brothel clients in Massachusetts.
Those cases have been tied up in litigation now before the state's highest court over whether the media can attend so-called "show cause" hearings that are normally closed to the public in which a clerk-magistrate would decide whether probable cause exists to charge the men with misdemeanors.
Prosecutors in Virginia also received referrals but ultimately concluded they did not have sufficient evidence to make a case against any clients under the state's solicitation statute, said Laura Birnbaum, a spokesperson for Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano.