The operators and clients of an interstate brothel network shut down in 2023 are beginning to suffer consequences — except in Northern Virginia.
A federal court sentenced the top manager of the prostitution ring with brothels in suburban Washington and in Massachusetts to prison this week.
A Massachusetts court started revealing the identities of the sex-buying johns visiting the greater Boston brothels last week.
But the clients of the prostitution ring’s Northern Virginia brothels that closed two years ago have yet to suffer legal consequences.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts sentenced brothel operator Han Lee, 42, on Wednesday to four years in prison plus a year of supervised release. Lee, born in South Korea and residing in Massachusetts, was found guilty on charges of running the brothels and on money laundering conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said Lee didn’t only recruit women to sell their bodies for sex, but she also “built a criminal enterprise designed to thrive in the shadows, evading law enforcement while profiting off her victims like commodities.”
“We will relentlessly pursue and prosecute those who exploit vulnerable women through interstate sex trafficking and launder their illicit gains,” Ms. Foley said in a statement. “Those who engage in this conduct will be identified, held accountable and sent to federal prison. Full stop.”
Not in Virginia.
The Justice Department listed in 2023 the accused commercial sex buyers at the brothels as elected officials, military officers, government contractors with security clearances and high-tech executives.
Virginia’s state prosecutors told The Washington Times last year they decided not to do anything about referrals from federal prosecutors because of a lack of evidence. Their decision hasn’t changed.
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, a Democrat, believed he didn’t have sufficient proof to make cases against the sex buyers under the state’s solicitation statute, according to his spokeswoman, Laura Birnbaum.
She said last year that Mr. Descano’s office talked with the office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, about taking on some cases as well but that his team declined.
Mr. Miyares’ office confirmed last year that there was a lack of sufficient evidence and stressed that Mr. Descano had jurisdiction.
Asked whether there was any change in their decision to ignore the accused sex-buying johns in Northern Virginia brothels, Mr. Miyares’ office on Thursday directed The Times to Mr. Descano’s office, which didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Federal officials have disclosed several details of the brothels’ operations. Images of text messages between the pimps and sex buyers discussing various prostitutes and their services were included among the evidence gathered by federal officials, according to a sworn affidavit from Homeland Security Investigations special agent Zachary Mitlitsky.
Mr. Mitlitsky’s 2023 affidavit said one client of the Virginia brothels used his LinkedIn profile to verify his identity to the pimps and prostitutes.
While that information hasn’t interested Virginia’s prosecutors, Massachusetts officials have taken notice.
The first dozen johns were named publicly in a Cambridge courtroom last week, where two of the accused sex customers appeared in court and left without speaking to reporters, according to the Boston Herald.
Despite the disparate focus, more sex customers appear to have visited the Virginia brothels than the Massachusetts locations. The U.S. Attorney’s office said last year that two cellphones used for the Virginia and Massachusetts brothels each had more than 2,800 verified customers — and an additional cellphone belonging to the Virginia ring was never obtained.
Thousands of clients with a number holding sensitive jobs as politicians and military officers and others with security clearances have prompted speculation in Washington that the brothels served as foreign honeypots, or plots to lure the johns to collect valuable information.
The brothel operators communicated with the prostitutes over a Korean messaging app, and Lee sent tens of thousands of dollars to a bank account in her name in South Korea, according to the federal prosecutors’ indictment.
Federal officials haven’t publicly linked the prostitution ring to a foreign government or criminal organization. The federal prosecutors’ indictment said the brothel ring’s purpose was to engage in interstate and foreign commerce.
The brothels in Fairfax and Tysons, Virginia, are short drives from large hubs of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies and the offices of their contractors.
Asked whether the Defense Department investigated any of its personnel or removed security clearances in connection with allegations that military officers visited the brothels, the department declined to comment and referred questions to the Justice Department.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts declined to comment on private correspondence between its office and any other government agencies.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also told The Times its then-acting U.S. Attorney referred identified sex buyers to state authorities in December 2023 and said the matter involving the johns is in the states’ hands.
A second brothel operator, Junmyung Lee, pleaded guilty in federal court last year and is scheduled to be sentenced next month. A third brothel operator, James Lee, pleaded guilty in federal court last month and is set to be sentenced in May.
