BOSTON — The appointment “booker” involved in an interstate commercial sex ring in greater Boston and Virginia that authorities said catered to “wealthy and well-connected clientele” has been sentenced to federal prison and faces deportation, the U.S. Attorney said Monday.
Junmyung Lee, 32, a Korean national living in Dedham, was sentenced in federal court in Boston on Friday to one year in prison, to be followed by one year of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
U.S. District Court Judge Julia Kobick handed down his sentence. Lee is subject to deportation upon completion of his sentence, Foley said.
The court also ordered a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $200,000, equal to the amount of proceeds earned by Lee during the brothel ring.
Lee’s sentencing happened about one month after court hearings began in a Cambridge courtroom for dozens of “wealthy and well-connected” men accused of being customers of the interstate commercial sex ring.
Among the accused sex buyers are Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner, former Massachusetts General Hospital oncologist James Cusack Jr. and Dr. Mitchell Rubenstein of Chestnut Hill, who is on leave from his position as Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Toner, former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, communicated with the “brothel phone” a total of 432 times and paid for sex at least 13 times over roughly a seven-month period, police wrote in their report.
Lee, the appointment “booker,” pleaded guilty in October to 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 to one count of money laundering conspiracy.
His guilty plea came one month after the head of the interstate commercial sex ring, Han “Hana” Lee, 42, of Cambridge, pleaded guilty in the case on Sept. 27. In court, Han Lee admitted to recruiting sex workers, getting them transportation to the brothel locations in Cambridge and Watertown, and then concealing the profits of the brothel with money orders.
A second man, James Lee, 69, of California, pleaded guilty in February and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28.
All three were indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2024 on charges of conspiracy to persuade, induce, entice, and coerce one or more individuals to travel in interstate or foreign commerce to engage in prostitution, and money laundering conspiracy.
Prosecutors said the trio ran a “sophisticated” commercial sex network in Watertown, Cambridge, and in Virginia, where buyers paid up to $600 per hour for a wide array of advertised sex acts. They were arrested in November 2023.
As “booker,” Junmyung Lee was responsible for vetting sex buyers, booking appointments, as well as communicating directly with vetted customers via at least two cell phones – for Massachusetts and for Virginia, respectively, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said these brothel cell phones each contained over 2,800 verified customers of the prostitution business.
Another known cell phone holding additional contacts for the Virginia brothel was never recovered, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the trio charged sex buyers a premium price for appointments with women advertised on their websites. Buyers paid anywhere from $350 to upwards of $600 per hour for sex, depending on the services. They paid in cash.
To conceal the proceeds of the prostitution network, Han Lee deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash proceeds into personal and third-party bank accounts and peer-to-peer transfers, prosecutors said. Hundreds of thousands of dollars from these proceeds were used to buy money orders to conceal the source of the funds.
These money orders were then used to pay for rent and utilities at brothel locations in Massachusetts and Virginia, prosecutors said.
Junmyung Lee was recruited to work for the prostitution network in approximately late 2021 through early 2022, as the business expanded, prosecutors said.
His main role in the conspiracy was that of the appointment “booker” and assisted with various tasks to maintain the prostitution network, prosecutors said. In exchange, Han Lee paid Junmyung Lee $6,000 to $8,000 per month.
Junmyung Lee also helped transport women to and from the airport, with some women working at the brothel locations on multiple occasions and in multiple states, prosecutors said. At the direction of Han Lee, he also collected the cash proceeds from the various brothel locations, and then concealed proceeds through structured deposits into personal bank accounts.
In June 2022, Junmyung Lee leased one of the brothel locations in Cambridge under his own name, prosecutors said.
In exchange for the lease, Junmyung Lee received a large cash payment of prostitution proceeds from Han Lee, which he then used to buy a Corvette, prosecutors said.
The brothel network generated over $5.6 million in revenue from approximately 9,450 scheduled commercial sex dates with sex buyers, prosecutors said.
On March 28, the men identified in court as alleged sex buyers included Amrit Chaudhuri, 39, of Brookline; Mitchell Rubenstein, 74, of Chestnut Hill; Marshall Berenson, 62, of Cambridge; Harmanpreet Singh, 38, of Woburn; Kenneth Posco, 69, of Fitchburg; George Wu, 58, of Needham; Patrick C. Enright, 63, of Wakefield; Suren Chelian, 47, of Lexington; Sankara S. Asapu, 40, of Malden; and John Cascarano, 61, of Hingham.
On March 21, along with Cusack and Toner, Cambridge District Court Clerk Sharon Casey approved criminal complaints against the following nine other men: Nathaniel Welch of Concord; Frederick Rosenthal of Marblehead; Timothy Ackerson of Waltham; Matthew Fulton of Belmont; Howard Redmond of Tewksbury; Anurag Bajpayee of Cambridge; Paul Grant of Charlestown; Steven Riel of Laconia, N.H. and Jeffrey Henry, of Exeter, N.H.
On March 14, a dozen accused sex buyers, from communities including Winchester, Lincoln, Concord, Newton, and Waltham, were identified in court. They included: Jonathan Lanfear, 56, of Winchester; Patrick Walsh , 66, of Swampscott; Pinhao Chao of Newton; David LaCava, 47, of Waltham; Jason Han, 29, of Concord; John Doran, 75, of Wellesley; Pablo Domingo Maceira, 39, of Roslindale; Peter MacGillivray, 60, of Boston; Yihong Zou, 30, of Boston; Boya Zhou, 27, of West Roxbury; Kerry Wu, 54, of Natick; and Mark Zhu, 29, of Lincoln.
Only two of the accused sex buyers, Han and Zhu, appeared in court with their attorneys last month. A few attorneys entered the courtroom alone on their client’s behalf.
Several other accused sex buyers and their attorneys altogether failed to show up in court.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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