[QUOTE=FreeWally;6992571]The affidavit spells it out. Investigators had the place on surveillance and even noticed that government employees were customers. It turns out they were using government issued phones, so they seized them without even a warrant. You can seen screenshots in the affidavit below. They had all this info before they made any arrest. That's why when they passed their evidence to state officials, there were so few people. 20 plus customers. Rather than thousands. They had this list before the first arrest was even made. You can read it yourself here:
[URL]https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/usa_v._han_lee_et_al_-_complaint_affidavit_redacted.pdf[/URL]
Note that the feds are interested in trafficking, i.e. transporting women and money over state lines. The initial charges were wire fraud. The feds had a press conference saying they cannot prosecute prostitution, it's not illegal federally. What they did was hand over their evidence to state officials, who could according to each states' laws. The state has used that evidence but is in no position to offer any plea deal for federal crimes. Nor would the feds give any lenience to federal crimes for non-federal crimes. They're separate cases run in parallel.
Just to be clear, all of this is public info and the court process is public. No plea has been given and in past cases like this it is unlikely. The feds already have everything they want. The state cases otoh are different and remains to be seen..[/QUOTE]The case at the state level is still on going and has not closed yet. There is quite significant damage to many peoples already. They initially planed to do public hearing and more than twenty peoples might need to show up on court. Those peoples who are facing public hearing hired lawyers and fight for it, now I heard that the court has postponed the case and we still don't know what's the final decisions.
