A Massachusetts woman pleaded guilty on Friday to running a high-end brothel network in the greater Boston area and the suburbs of Washington that served wealthy and well-connected clientele including politicians, corporate executives, lawyers and military officers.
Han Lee appeared in Boston federal court to plead guilty to charges that she conspired to persuade, induce and entice primarily Asian women to travel to Massachusetts and Virginia to engage in prostitution and committed money laundering.
She was the first to admit wrongdoing of the three individuals who prosecutors charged in November in connection with a sex ring run out of apartment complexes in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts and Fairfax and Tysons, Virginia.
Lee, 42, faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 20. She stressed when addressing U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick that while she ran an illegal prostitution business, she did not force any women to engage in sex work.
Sex work should be legal as long as it is done willingly.Let them pay tax and work out of buildings. That would keep the women much safer than working on the streets and get into cars with people.
That’s exactly what amsterdam did. Same with drugs. You make it legal, and you’ll make it easier to regulate.
Fun fact: Red light district is an alcohol free zone. As alcohol tends to increase aggression. People aren’t allowed to walk there while under influence.
You don’t have to look to other countries for this, prostitution is legal in many counties in NV.
Yeah, but the law was written in a way to keep it out of all major cities in Nevada.
For sure. I’m just saying that you can examine the social effects of legalizing prostitution in a US context already.
And in this specific case, none of the workers were street-level, getting into randos cars. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the workers were willing participants, but I would bet that with the level of clientele involved, almost all were.
Just because the exploiters are rich that doesn’t mean the exploited are well paid at all.
Federal minimum wage is $7.25, your point is?
I’m curious why you assume almost all were willing participants. I’m also concerned with the use of the word “coerced”.
The promise of good money doesn’t ensure willingness, and just because workers are “street level” doesn’t mean they aren’t being exploited.
And with some degree of oversight, for the safety and health of the workers and their clients.
It turned out really well in NZ when we legalised it.
There’s even a sex workers union.
We still have our share of christofacists and prosperity grifters though, they’re just relatively politically impotent.