Woman Who Ran 'High-End' DC Brothels Is Sentenced

UPDATE Mar 20, 2025 1:00 AM CDT

The Massachusetts woman who ran a network of high-end brothels in her home state as well as the Washington, DC, area was on Wednesday sentenced to four years behind bars. Han Lee, 42, pleaded guilty in September, and at her sentencing hearing she apologized and said that in many cases she was only trying to help women who had escaped domestic violence or lacked an education, the AP reports. Two co-defendants charged with her have also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next month. None of the women who worked in the brothels were charged, but dozens of the alleged clients were, and the first group of them appeared in court for the first time last week.

Nov 9, 2023 12:30 AM CST

"Pick a profession, they're probably represented in this case." Those were the words of a federal prosecutor in reference to what CNN describes as the "sprawling client list" of a network of high-end brothels operated in the Washington, DC, area as well as in Massachusetts. Those clients included, per the Justice Department, "politicians, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors, lawyers, scientists and accountants." The DOJ has charged three people with running the network, two of them in Massachusetts and one in California, Politico reports. As for the clients, they're being investigated.

The three defendants, Han Lee, Junmyung Lee, and James Lee, allegedly rented expensive apartments and advertised rates ranging from $350 to $600 per hour for sexual services to pre-approved clients. They allegedly mostly advertised on websites promoting sex with Asian women; Fox News, which has a screenshot of the alleged "menu" of services one client provided to the feds, reports the websites included photos and measurements. Women's flights and transportation were allegedly paid for. The feds say they're interviewing alleged customers and looking at cellphone location data, surveillance video, and financial records amid the investigation, and that there are "potentially hundreds of yet to be identified customers." (More Justice Department stories.)