By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-14 13:01:58 | Updated at 2025-03-14 16:47:36
3 hours ago
A dozen rich and powerful men accused of using a high-class brothel will be named and shamed in court today.
The twelve are due to appear before a probable cause hearing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 10am Friday to determine whether they should face charges.
A total of 28 alleged johns will appear in court over the coming weeks.
The other 16 men will be hauled before a judge in Cambridge next Friday and the Friday afterwards.
All are said to have patronized a brothel ring that operated out of six luxury apartments in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, as well as DC's suburbs, whose clientele have been described as 'rich and powerful.'
Prosecutors say these stringent checks revealed that the brothels' visitors included public officials, military officers, high-level government contractors, doctors, professors and CEOs.
Some of those powerful figures are now just hours away from being dragged before a court to face career and marriage-ending allegations.
Federal prosecutors brought charges because the $600-an-hour prostitutes who worked at the brothel were exploited until the premises were raided in late 2023, according to the Boston Globe.
Anyone who wished to spend time with one of the sex workers had to provide extensive documentation to verify their identities.
Two of the prostitutes whose wealthy and powerful clientele are set to be named and shamed by a court in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday morning
The brothel ring, which operated across six locations in Massachusetts and suburban DC, required extensive documentation and references from prospective clients, handing prosecutors a goldmine of information about the men who used it
Millions of dollars of cash and stacks of payment cards were among the items discovered when the brothels were raided by feds in late 2023 (some of the items seized are pictured above)
This included sharing details of employment and even providing referees.
Monthly memberships for the brothels were also available to men who wished to become regular visitors.
No details of the men's private lives have been shared, but it is highly likely many are married, have families and are considered pillars of their wealthy communities.
Three pimps who ran the prostitution ring have already admitted their crimes.
Investigators have since vowed to seek 'accountability' by exposing the men whose lavish spending kept the brothels open.
They sought indictments against 28 men accused of using the brothels at a court hearing in December 2023.
Predictable fury ensued as those men sought to keep the hearings closed to the public in a bid to conceal their identities.
They claimed they had a right to privacy.
All face misdemeanor charges and none of the men have been arrested.
Four of the brothels were run out of luxury apartment buildings in the suburbs of Boston, with the city a magnet for high-powered pharmaceutical executives
Another two brothels were run out of luxury apartment buildings straddling the Washington Dc-Virginia border, close to the world's most important center of power
Such crimes are normally dealt with in Massachusetts by 'show-cause' hearings, which are usually private.
That has sparked anger over a lack of transparency.
Multiple media outlets challenged requests to hold the hearings in private, with Massachusetts' State Supreme Court ultimately ruling they should be held in public.
Those accused face a charge of paying for sex, which is unlikely to result in jail time if they're convicted.
But advocates for the prostitutes say naming the men can help shame them and others into not paying for sex and lower the demand for sex workers, many of whom are trafficked.
