BOSTON — A former Social Security Administration (SSA) employee was sentenced to six months in prison and five years of supervised release yesterday for attempting to coerce a beneficiary into crossing state lines to engage in prostitution.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, Dae Sung Kim, 36, of Auburn, MA, was sentenced on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, by U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman. Kim pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of attempting to induce a person to travel across state lines for prostitution, and the sentencing followed that plea.
“This was a shocking abuse of power by someone entrusted to serve the public. The defendant, while employed as an SSA claims specialist, attempted to exploit a vulnerable, disabled mother seeking to apply for reinstatement of disability benefits after losing her job. This predatory behavior is intolerable,” said Michelle Anderson, Acting Inspector General, Social Security Administration.
Prosecutors say that in March 2024, Kim handled an in-person visit at the Gardner SSA field office from a woman seeking Social Security benefits after losing her job.
About 20 minutes later, after directing the beneficiary to a different SSA field office nearer to her residence in another state, Kim used his access to SSA records to obtain her phone number and called her from his personal cell phone.
“On the call, Kim said he understood the beneficiary was in a ‘difficult situation’ and that ‘maybe they could work something out that would benefit them both,’” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a statement.
In the investigation that followed, Kim stated in text messages and a consensually monitored phone call that he was offering to pay the beneficiary for sex and tried to negotiate a price.
Over the next several months, Kim persisted in his solicitation through text messages with undercover officers posing as the beneficiary, repeatedly requesting nude photographs that were refused.
Kim eventually suggested that the beneficiary travel from her home outside Massachusetts to a hotel parking lot in Fitchburg, where he proposed having sex in a car for $100. When he arrived at the location in October 2024, law enforcement confronted him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said.
“Public servants are entrusted to assist people, not exploit them. This was a brazen abuse of power by a federal employee who used his position and access to sensitive information to prey on a vulnerable woman who had just lost her job. This kind of predatory behavior has no place in public service, or anywhere else,” said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley. “This case represents yet another example of my office’s commitment to reduce the demand for commercial exploitation. Mr. Kim attempted to purchase access to the victim’s body and used her vulnerability and his privilege to do so.”
The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Nagelberg of the Major Crimes Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan D. O’Shea of the Worcester Branch Office.
