Intelligence experts are becoming increasingly convinced that six high end brothels in the suburbs of Boston and Washington, D.C. were set up by a foreign nation as an espionage 'honeytrap'.
They believe the brothels – allegedly masterminded by a 41-year-old South Korean woman – targeted politicians, high ranking government officials and defense contractors.
But the mystery is which country was behind the scheme. Russia, China, Korea itself, or even Israel are al seen as possibly being behind the scheme.
'Having the Koreans out front could have been a false flag to give China or another country plausible deniability if the plot unraveled,' a one-time CIA senior operations officer told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
The brothels were raided in November and prosecutors said they were looking to charge 28 people in Massachusetts alone.
The lingerie and bikini clad 'models' advertised on the brothel's website included, Yoko and Tiffany who were offered as a 'duo' for photographers looking for a modeling twosome
In their affidavit, investigators identified six 'target locations' where the brothels were based, four in the Boston area - referred to as 'Target Locations 4-7'. Three of those were units in a Cambridge apartment complex and one in a unit in Watertown. Two apartment units on New St in Cambridge were also named as previous brothel locations
The two brothels in Virginia (referred to in the affidavit as 'Target Locations 8 and 9') were situated in Unit 245 at the Avalon Mosaic in the quiet suburban town of Fairfax and Unit 649 of the nearby Hanover Tysons
Joshua Levy, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the state said his office will seek 'accountability for the buyers who fuel the commercial sex industry'.
There was no evident motive to establish two cathouses in the greater Washington area, sources noted emphatically. None of the three defendants live anywhere near the capital and sex workers were flown in from Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
Han Lee, the alleged mastermind, Junmyung Lee, 30, and James Lee, 68 – all South Korean-born U.S. nationals – were charged in November with running the sex ring. The three Lees are not related.
Han and Junmyung both live in the Boston area so the locations of four of the brothels there made sense. James lives in Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles.
Members of Congress, military officers, and national security contractors who 'possessed security clearances' were among the steady customers at the 'high-end brothels' run by the ring, prosecutors say.
The ring's clients, who paid rates of up to $600 an hour, included corporate executives, professors, lawyers, and scientists.
To entice customers, the Lees allegedly set up websites whose purported purpose was helping photographers find nude female models looking for work. Investigators believe the ring had made more than $1 million by the time it was busted.
The lingerie and bikini clad 'models' went by names such as Sexy Schu, Venus, Tina, YokoDDD and Tiffany.
The last two were offered as a 'duo' for photographers looking for a modeling twosome.
None of the clients have been identified or charged so far, but they could soon be unmasked after federal prosecutors last month announced they are seeking criminal charges.
The probe into 'their involvement in prostitution is active and ongoing,' Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Zachary Mitlitsky said in a court affidavit.
A spokeswoman for the US Attorney's Office in Boston, which is prosecuting the case, cited the same reason in declining to comment on questions about the prostitution ring, including whether the suspects had ties to foreign intelligence.
Experts interviewed by DailyMail.com suspect the brothel scheme was a honeypot.
The twin locations where ring operators selected to set up shop is the first clue, a number of them said.
As the country's political headquarters, Washington presents a target-rich environment for spies.
In the affidavit, investigators identified six 'target locations' where the brothels were based, four in the Boston area ('Target Locations 4-7') and two in Virginia ('Target locations 8 and 9).
The high-end brothel network kept detailed records of its customers along with millions in cash and other damning items in bulk. Clientele included 'hundreds' of elected officials, tech, pharmaceutical executives, lawyers, professors and military officers, though federal prosecutors did not identify any of them
One of the sites seen here, which was aimed at the Massachusetts area, asked customers to not 'knock on the door'
One of the women advertised by the brothel was identified as Tina on the website
Extramarital affairs and sexual promiscuity and deviance are other helpful vulnerabilities, which is why honeypots are a time-honored practice of intelligence agencies.
Two of the brothels operated from units in luxury apartment buildings in the Virginia suburbs outside the capital, which are each about a 15-minute drive from the White House, Congress, Pentagon and CIA.
The surrounding area is packed with national security giants such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics.
Boston, where the other four brothels operated, is a haven for defense contractors as well.
It's also home to top-tier universities such as Harvard and MIT that train government and military officials, and produce reports for the Pentagon and CIA.
The ring didn't have anyone based near D.C. as far as can be determined. Suspects had to fly in and out of town with a rotating cast of sex workers, set them up at the Virginia apartments and deal with routine business matters.
The Washington operations would have significantly increased costs, created logistical headaches, and greatly heightened risks.
From a practical standpoint, it would have been easier to simply open two more brothels in Boston – unless the primary goal of the ring's operators wasn't maximizing profits but intelligence gathering.
'The most valuable information in Washington and Boston are government secrets,' a former foreign spy who is well acquainted with honeypots told DailyMail.com.
'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.'
Former CIA Special Agent Nic McKinley, who now leads Deliver Fund, a nonprofit that works with law enforcement to combat human trafficking, echoed the point.
'If this had been a pure cash play, massage parlors are easier to set up, have lower overhead costs and print money,' he said.
Driver's licenses of one of the three suspects, James Lee. According to the affidavit, investigators found three driver's licenses were submitted in support of rental applications for brothels in Massachusetts and Virginia – which are all believed to be James Lee using two different aliases
'But they wouldn't have pulled in affluent customers from government and national security circles.'
The first step for any intelligence agency looking to recruit a foreign asset is preparing a targeting analysis to pinpoint top prospects.
Those that make the final cut must have access to the desired information and a history that suggests they would betray their country if the proper incentive were offered.
Spy agencies deem financial stress, greed, marital problems and feeling underappreciated at work to be exploitable vulnerabilities.
Extramarital affairs and sexual promiscuity and deviance are other helpful vulnerabilities, which is why honeypots are a time-honored practice of intelligence agencies.
The brothels in Virginia were situated in Unit 245 at the Avalon Mosaic in the quiet suburban town of Fairfax and Unit 649 of the nearby Hanover Tysons.
The two units had large bedrooms and comfortably furnished living room areas where clients could unwind over drinks with their companions afterwards.
In this relaxing atmosphere, a government official might feel the urge to impress an attractive young woman by dropping names of prominent colleagues and holding forth about his important responsibilities at work.
Aspiring clients had to submit a membership application before they could book an appointment.
Required documentation included government-issued ID, phone and email contacts, employer information and credit card records, according to court records.
Bizarrely, numerous political, military and business officials provided it all without blinking an eye and proceeded to have sex in an apartment that for all they knew was outfitted with equipment to record video and audio footage.
'Finding idiots like this would be pure gold for an intelligence service running a honeypot,' said the retired foreign spy.
A retired CIA senior operations officer was equally flabbergasted.
'This is at the level of a Nigerian prince scam,' she said.
Ring operators would have taken precautions to ensure a prospective client wasn't actually an undercover cop, but the level of vetting of brothel members suggests the proprietors may have built a client base heavily laden with government insiders by design, not chance.
The affidavit also shows a text message sent from a phone related to the operation in Massachusetts which includes a 'menu'
The details of the investigation included pictures of meticulous client records with names and dates - which have exposed tons of professionals in elite industries for paying upwards of $600 per hour for sexual encounters with predominately Asian women
That's exactly the way honeypots are intended to work, the retired foreign operative asserted.
'The goal is to create a chain reaction,' he said. 'Draw people from your narrow group of targets, provide them with great service and wait for them to invite friends and colleagues from the same circles.'
None of the three suspects have known prior criminal records. The biggest mark against any of them is that James Lee received more than $500,000 in potentially fraudulent Covid relief funds.
Their clean records are especially surprising because prosecutors allege at least some of the sex workers were trafficked, which would mean an organized crime group almost certainly played a role.
It's simple nowadays for spy services – and relative amateurs as well – to obtain compromising material on targets by hacking their phones or stealing it from client databases of online companies that sell illicit or seedy sex, said a former CIA counterintelligence officer.
He cited reports from earlier this year that revealed a conservative Catholic group in Colorado spent millions of dollars to buy mobile tracking data in order to out priests using gay hookup apps.
But most of the sources said the brothel scheme's risk-reward ratio wouldn't deter a foreign service from trying to pull it off, but encourage it.
'Paying for sex may reveal a character flaw, but you have to know a lot more to assess if a target is corruptible,' said a retired senior CIA officer who served in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
'You're not going to find what you need by scrolling through a list of names you stole from hookers.com.'
In a well-executed honeypot, the women who serve as the bait build personal relationships with the marks, tease out information that helps assess their weaknesses and test what they're willing to do.
According to an affidavit, three units at this apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were used as brothel locations, among others in the area
In a similar fashion, the group are also said to have operated a unit inside this apartment building in Watertown, Massachusetts
In Virginia were situated Unit 649 of the nearby Hanover Tysons (pictured) was among the apartments used as brothel locations
Unit 245 at the Avalon Mosaic in the quiet suburban town of Fairfax was counted as a brothel location. The two units at both properties had large bedrooms and comfortably furnished living room areas where clients could unwind over drinks with their companions afterwards
'The girls start by asking for a small favor that's at the edge of the target's comfort zone and try to keep expanding the zone and turn small favors into big favors,' said the ex-CIA officer.
A honeypot aims to obtain compromising information, but weaponizing it is rare because it's counterproductive to the primary goal: recruiting agents that have access to state secrets.
'It's easy to get blackmailable information into public, but that creates a public scandal,' explained the source.
'Your target loses his job, his life is destroyed and so is his value.'
Furthermore, a recruitment target might be threatened with blackmail in an emergency – signs he was preparing to go to the FBI, for example – but it's rarely used to compel cooperation.
'Persuasion works better than threats,' said John Sipher, a 28-year veteran of the CIA's National Clandestine Service. 'Targets who need to be coerced will turn on you the first chance they get.'
Not enough information is available to know for sure whether a foreign intelligence service was behind the brothel operation, but based on what's been disclosed so far it's likely, said Sipher.
'You've got high level officials with access to secrets who may have been filmed having sex with a prostitute, and are at high risk of manipulation or coercion.'
'The FBI would be criminally negligent if it hasn't already opened a counterintelligence investigation.'
Archived web pages reveal the high-end bordello network maintained a roster of slender Asian 'companions' - with names like Jade, Barbie, Bing Bing, Venus and Sexy Schu
Before clients could book a slot, first-time visitors were greeted with a verification page asking for personal data including their name, phone number and employer
Christine Fang, (right) known as 'Fang Fang' ,cost Democrat Rep. Eric Swallwell his place on the Intelligence sub-committee while Maria Butina was jailed after being labeled a 'Kremlin-trained seductress'
Only a few overseas spy agencies have the capacity to pull off a sophisticated honeypot and would risk running in on US soil, so the list of suspects is a short one.
The consensus view of the sources interviewed by DailyMail.com. was that if it was a honeypot, the foreign service that drew it up arranged to have an organized crime group with existing financial stakes in the sex industry manage and staff it to cover its tracks.
Many of those involved, from the three indicted Koreans to the sex workers themselves, were likely unaware of the espionage component, the experts said.
Russia is an obvious candidate as the KGB frequently ran honeytraps during the Cold War and the FSB, its post-Soviet Union successor agency, is known to as well.
In 2018, Maria Butina, a red-headed Russian grad student at American University in Washington, was charged with infiltrating the Republican Party and conservative groups to encourage them to promote Russian interests.
Her alleged tactics included seducing NRA operative Paul Erickson and Overstock.com CEO and GOP donor Patrick Byrne, who later helped finance former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In 2019, Butina, who the US government labeled a 'Kremlin-trained seductress,' was deported to Russia after six months in prison for serving as an unregistered foreign agent for Moscow.
Friendly foreign services are also on the suspect list, including the Israeli Mossad, another prolific historic user of honeypots. In 2010, Rabbi Ari Shvat decreed that seducing an enemy for national security purposes was a blessing and that 'an unmarried operative should be preferred in 'honey trap' cases'.
'But if there was no other choice her husband should divorce her and remarry her after the fact,' Shvat said.
Israel also isn't shy about targeting CIA officers.
A former deputy station chief in the Middle East said that he once boarded a flight from the US to Israel and a gorgeous Israeli had the seat next to his.
'She had all the same interests I did ,' he recounted. 'We talked for almost the entire flight and when we arrived she said she'd love to get together; I told her I appreciated her interest but it probably wasn't a good idea given her likely employer.'
French intelligence, which excels at corporate espionage, and the Egyptian service, which befriended Senator Bob Menendez and his wife in a case still pending, were also named as outlier suspects, but most sources pointed a finger at China or South Korea.
The FBI rates the danger posed by Beijing's influence operations to be so serious that it established a special unit dedicated to countering the threat in 2019.
In January of this year, Congressman Eric Swalwell lost his seat on the House Intelligence Committee due to reports that he developed a warm friendship with alleged Chinese intelligence operative Christine Fang in the mid-2010s.
Better known as 'Fang Fang,' the voluptuous suspected spy forged bonds with several national and local elected officials, including two Midwestern mayors she seduced. Fang Fang fled the US in 2015.
Other sources believe the nationality of the three suspects is an indicator South Korea's National Intelligence Services was involved.
The country's vast political and commercial stakes in Washington give it a strong motive to seek to influence American government policies.
South Korea has a lot more to lose than China if it was exposed for running an influence operation in the US, but it wouldn't be the first time.
In 1966, South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park launched the exclusive George Town Club in Washington.
A decade later, it emerged that Park was operating the club in cahoots with Seoul's spy service.
Park was indicted for bribing three members of congress but was granted immunity in exchange for testifying at the trials of the elected officials, none who were convicted.
If the feds eventually conclude a foreign intelligence service was the hidden hand behind the brothels, the public may never know, according to one retired operations officer's opinion.
The former officer explained that if a john clicked on one of the websites to book an appointment, he could have unwittingly downloaded a tool that allowed the adversary to swipe information from the device they used.
'Should that be the case, the Pentagon and CIA would likely make the case that publicly disclosing what was stolen could jeopardize national security. I'd hate to see government officials get off for that reason, but that might be the right call.'
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