A Korean woman was sentenced to prison for operating a prostitution business targeting public officials and corporate executives in an upscale apartment near Harvard University in the United States.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 7th (local time), a past employee ID of a 50-year-old chief executive officer (CEO) caught for procuring sex, as well as a driver's license and credit cards, were found in the luxury apartment near Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The operator of this upscale prostitution business is a Korean woman, Lee, 42. Lee operated the prostitution business out of the luxury apartment, charging up to $600 (850,000 won) per hour from corporate executives, doctors, lawyers, and politicians. The apartment is not far from the campuses of prestigious universities such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Born in Korea and having a difficult upbringing, Lee worked as a sex worker for several years before becoming an operator of a prostitution business, the WSJ reported.
Among more than 30 individuals caught for procuring sex at this establishment, a 50-year-old Cambridge city councilor is under pressure to resign. During a city council meeting last month, he expressed regret, saying he was "embarrassed" by the incident, but stated that "all Americans, including elected officials, have the right to due process" and maintained that he would not resign.
It has been revealed that the group of men who procured sex includes influential figures such as CEOs running promising corporations who have graduated from prestigious universities in Cambridge.
Ultimately, Lee was charged with coercing or inducing Asian women, including Koreans, into prostitution while operating the business from July 2020 to 2023 in Virginia and Massachusetts.
Prosecutors claimed that Lee conducted "customer surveys" to check whether the men procuring sex work for police or judicial institutions like the prosecution. It turned out that Lee operated the prostitution business thoroughly, demanding referrals from existing clients or other establishments from new clients.
On the 19th of last month, the Boston Federal Court sentenced Lee to four years in prison and ordered the forfeiture of $5.5 million (about 780 million won).
Lee's lawyer, Scott Lauer, noted, "If the women wished, they were allowed to take more than half of the revenue and refuse services," pleading for leniency.
The legal representative of the 13 men charged with procuring sex argued in the Massachusetts Supreme Court that the defendants are "private citizens who would suffer harm if their names and faces are made public," requesting that their personal information be kept confidential; however, this was not accepted.