CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The final batch of names of alleged sex buyers, including a prominent Boston doctor, have been released in connection with an interstate commercial sex ring that ran high-end brothels in two Massachusetts communities.
During an hours-long session in Cambridge District Court on Friday, the names of 10 accused Johns were called to the session. A clerk magistrate found probable cause for each case, meaning the cases have moved forward for prosecution.
All 10 men are charged with “Sexual conduct for a fee.” Prosecutors said the high-end brothel ring run out of buildings in Cambridge, Watertown, Dedham and Virginia catered to “wealthy and well-connected” men.
Boston 25 has learned that one of the men identified Friday, Dr. Mitchell Rubenstein of Chestnut Hill, is on leave from his position as Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The men identified Friday included Amrit Chaudhuri, 39, of Brookline; Mitchell Rubenstein, 74, of Chestnut Hill; Marshall Berenson, 62, of Cambridge; Harmanpreet Singh, 38, of Woburn; Kenneth Posco, 69, of Fitchburg; George Wu, 58, of Needham; Patrick C. Enright, 63, of Wakefield; Suren Chelian, 47, of Lexington; Sankara S. Asapu, 40, of Malden; and John Cascarano, 61, of Hingham.
The probable cause hearing for an East Bridgewater man was continued until April 25. None of the accused sex buyers or their lawyers appeared in court for their hearings on Friday.
The attorneys for the Boston-area “John Does” identified in the black books of the sophisticated interstate high-end brothel network have desperately tried to keep their identities private, arguing that revealing their names violates their privacy.
In 2023, then-acting Boston U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said the clientele of the brothels included politicians, big pharma executives, government contractors with security clearances, professors, lawyers, accountants, and scientists.
The U.S. Attorney earlier said many of the accused sex buyers came from privilege, but their names were kept hidden.
Now, after exhausting their legal appeals, a total of 34 names have been made public.
Among them are Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner and former Massachusetts General Hospital oncologist James Cusack Jr.
Toner, former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, communicated with the “brothel phone” a total of 432 times and paid for sex at least 13 times over roughly a seven-month period, police wrote in their report.
On Monday night, during the Cambridge City Council meeting, Toner read an apology letter to his fellow councilors and to the community.
“You’ve all heard the news concerning my personal legal matters,” Toner said Monday night. “First, I’m ashamed to have my name associated with this case — I would like to apologize to my fellow councilors, my supporters, and the community for taking up the time of the council and the public discourse on this matter.”
Rubenstein, the Boston dermatologist, allegedly paid for sex at least six times in 2023, including on April 5, April 12, April 26, May 9, July 9 and Sep. 23, Cambridge Police Detective Agrait Collazo wrote in his report.
On Sept. 23, 2023, Rubenstein allegedly paid for sex with a woman with the stage name of “Sera” for 60 minutes for the price of $340 at the brothel location at 90 Fawcett St. in Cambridge, Collazo wrote.
Last Friday, along with Cusack and Toner, Cambridge District Court Clerk Sharon Casey approved criminal complaints against the following nine other men: Nathaniel Welch of Concord; Frederick Rosenthal of Marblehead; Timothy Ackerson of Waltham; Matthew Fulton of Belmont; Howard Redmond of Tewksbury; Anurag Bajpayee of Cambridge; Paul Grant of Charlestown; Steven Riel of Laconia, N.H. and Jeffrey Henry, of Exeter, N.H.
On March 14, a dozen accused sex buyers, from communities including Winchester, Lincoln, Concord, Newton, and Waltham, were identified in court. They included: Jonathan Lanfear, 56, of Winchester; Patrick Walsh , 66, of Swampscott; Pinhao Chao of Newton; David LaCava, 47, of Waltham; Jason Han, 29, of Concord; John Doran, 75, of Wellesley; Pablo Domingo Maceira, 39, of Roslindale; Peter MacGillivray, 60, of Boston; Yihong Zou, 30, of Boston; Boya Zhou, 27, of West Roxbury; Kerry Wu, 54, of Natick; and Mark Zhu, 29, of Lincoln.
Over the course of three hearings, Cambridge Police Lt. Jarred Cabral detailed the allegations against the men as he read from police reports.
Cabral read text messages from the accused sex buyers, who range in age from men in their 20s to men in their 70s and include single and married men, fathers, doctors, CEOs, businessmen and a local politician.
According to prosecutors, women were shuttled to private rooms in luxury apartment buildings for commercial sex, and high-powered clients then frequented those sites in “a criminal enterprise designed to thrive in the shadows,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in an earlier statement.
When scheduling sex services, sex buyers were asked to make “donations” — code to refer to a client paying for sex — to the sex workers, according to the police reports.
After making appointments, the men would again text the “brothel phone” while going to their appointment and when arriving to the brothel location for sex, court documents show.
In November 2023, authorities arrested Han Lee, Junmyung Lee, and James Lee on charges of running a commercial sex network in Watertown, Cambridge, and Virginia, where buyers paid up to $600 per hour for a wide array of advertised sex acts.
Han Lee, the 42-year-old leader interstate commercial sex ring, was sentenced earlier this week to four years in prison followed by one year of supervised release.
Audra Doody of Safe Exit Initiative is a survivor who was trafficked.
Doody, who attended Friday’s hearings, said she hopes the prosecution of these cases will raise awareness of a serious problem that can be found in every community.
“This is showing that this state is not going to tolerate people buying people. And that’s a message in itself. If that message gets out maybe traffickers and pimps won’t sell young vulnerable girls,” Doody said.
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