After Third Hearing, 34 Clients Named and Charged in Connection With Brothel Ring

Following a Friday hearing, 34 men — including a Cambridge city councilor and three Harvard affiliates — have now been publicly identified as clients of a high-end brothel network that operated in parts of Cambridge and Washington D.C. suburbs.

Mitchell H. Rubenstein — listed as an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School in a University directory — and Marshall L. Berenson ’88 were charged with sexual conduct for a fee at Friday’s probable cause hearings, alongside eight other men.

Probable cause hearings held over three weeks in March led to criminal charges issued against nearly every alleged client identified. Though the Cambridge Police Department initially sought charges against 28 men, that number climbed to 34 in May 2024 after police sought additional charges.

The third and final hearing was held Friday to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to formally charge the men with sexual conduct for a fee — a misdemeanor that rarely leads to jail time if convicted.

Of the 11 men named on Friday, a criminal charge was issued against 10. Only one defendant — Paul J. Urban, of East Bridgewater, Mass. — does not so far face charges. His hearing was pushed until late April due to an issue with his summons to court.

The final hearing led to charges being filed against Berenson and Rubenstein, as well as Amrit Chaudhuri, Harmanpreet Singh, Kenneth Posco, George Wu, Patrick C. Enright, Suren Chelian, and John Cascarano. None of the men appeared in court on Friday, and neither did any of their lawyers.

James C. Cusack, a former oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, was charged last week.

All of the men are scheduled to be arraigned in May, and none have gone to trial or been found guilty of a crime.

CPD chose to press charges against the alleged clients in December 2023 after federal law enforcement arrested the three ringleaders of the brothel in November 2023 — all of whom have now pleaded guilty in federal court. One of the individuals, Han Lee, was sentenced to 4 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in fines last week.

When the ringleaders were arrested, federal prosecutors obtained a subpoena for the “brothel phone” that the operators used to arrange dates, services, and payment with the clients. Among the roughly 2,800 clients identified by federal law enforcement, prosecutors said that there were doctors, scientists, elected officials, professors, and other high-profile individuals.

“Pick a profession. They’re probably represented in this case,” then-U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a 2023 press conference when the original arrests were announced.

City Councilor Paul F. Toner is the only elected official — and the highest-profile individual — to be charged in Cambridge.

—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached matan.josephy@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @matanjosephy.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.