(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) It was revealed by intelligence experts that six high-end brothels in the suburbs of both Boston and Washington, D.C. were set up by a foreign nation as an espionage “honeytrap.”
They informed the Daily Mail that the brothels were believed to be masterminded by a 41-year-old South Korean woman and targeted politicians, high-ranking government officials and defense contractors.
However, it isn’t clear which foreign country was behind the operation. As of Jan. 4, 2024, the suspects are Russia, China, South Korea or Israel.
In November 2023, the brothels were raided and prosecutors said that they were looking to charge 28 people in Massachusetts alone.
Han Lee, the mastermind herself, Junmyung Lee, 30, and James Lee, 68 – all South Korean-born U.S. nationals – were charged the same month with running the sex ring. The three people are not related.
The locations of four of the brothels in the Boston area made sense since Han and Junmyung both lived there. However, James lived in Torrance, which is a suburb of Los Angeles.
Prosecutors added that among the steady customers at the “high-end brothels” run by the ring were members of Congress, military officers and national security contractors who “possessed security clearances.”
Other ring’s clients who were ready to pay up to $600 an hour were corporate executives, professors, lawyers and scientists.
So far, none of the clients have been identified or charged. However, their identities could soon be revealed because federal prosecutors announced last month that they are seeking criminal charges.
“The most valuable information in Washington and Boston are government secrets. If you open a prostitution business that caters to wealthy clients in those cities, you’ll get a lot of people walking through the doors that have access to them,” a former foreign spy who is well acquainted with honeypots said.
Former CIA Special Agent Nic McKinley, who is now a leader of Deliver Fund, a nonprofit that works with law enforcement to combat human trafficking, agreed.
“If this had been a pure cash play, massage parlors [would be] easier to set up, have lower overhead costs and print money. But they wouldn’t have pulled in affluent customers from government and national security circles,” he said.
