Winston Lee, one of seven Cornell University fraternity members accused by a fellow student of gang rape, is the grandson of Lee Hong-koo, a former South Korean prime minister and ambassador to the United States.
In a lawsuit, a Cornell student identified as “Jane Doe” accused the former Chi Phi member of snorting ketamine off her and forcing her to perform oral sex during the alleged assault.
Cornell suspended Lee for two years.
His grandfather, Lee Hong-koo, served as South Korea’s prime minister from 1994 to 1995 and as the country’s ambassador to the US from 1998 to 2000, during Bill Clinton’s presidency.
The two prominent figures crossed paths repeatedly. At a 2000 ceremony at the Korean War Memorial in Washington marking the conflict’s 50th anniversary, they posed for photographs together.
Their relationship appeared to continue after Clinton left office. In 2005, while the former president was in Seoul promoting his autobiography, Lee invited him to a hotel for bibimbap, a Korean dish Clinton was reportedly a “huge fan” of.
Lee Hong-koo died in May, and Winston acted as chief mourner at the high-profile funeral in Seoul. He oversaw key rites, welcomed guests and accepted condolences on behalf of the family, which traces its lineage to Korea’s former royal family.
Photographs from the funeral prominently show Winston wearing white gloves and holding a portrait of his grandfather.
Lee Hong-koo’s only son, Winston’s father, is Barton Lee, a Yale-educated investment banker who serves as managing director and head of Asia at EIG in Hong Kong.
The family is considered one of the most prominent in South Korea’s expatriate community in Hong Kong. Sources said it has faced intense scrutiny and shame since Jane Doe filed a lawsuit alleging that seven men, including Winston, gang raped her at Cornell.
Winston’s mother, Ji Young Hwang, is president of the Korean Women’s Association of Hong Kong, a nonprofit officially recognized by the South Korean government. Its stated mission includes “supporting women’s integration and personal growth.”
The association removed its Instagram page after the allegations emerged, drawing further criticism.
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“Shutting down their Instagram account feels like a move to protect one of their own rather than stand by their mission,” Hong Kong-based Instagram account Cantonese Lesson Daily wrote.
“It is especially troubling given that the person involved is the president of the organization. The behavior her son is accused of is fundamentally antithetical to the core principles of any group dedicated to supporting, protecting, and empowering women.”
Winston attended the United World College of the Atlantic, an elite boarding school in Wales with annual tuition of $150,000. He later hired the prominent law firm that represented Sean “Diddy” Combs and Harvey Weinstein in their sex-related cases.
According to Doe’s lawsuit, the alleged assault lasted for hours. After Jonathan Newell posted a “free p—y” message in the “Chi Phi Actives” Snapchat group, Winston replied, “CHI PHIII.” He then went upstairs, where he and Matthew Ingalls allegedly took Doe to another room for the night’s final threesome, which ended at about 5:45 a.m.
Cornell’s directory shows that Lee remains enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences this semester.
All of the men named in Doe’s allegations have denied wrongdoing, and none has been criminally charged.
In interviews with Cornell investigators, Winston said his sexual contact with Doe was consensual.
The day after the alleged incident, Doe texted Newell: “I don’t think we should feel any shame. . . . Our body our choice.”
Doe’s lawyer attributed the message to “part of the processing that she was going through” from denial to acceptance.
Winston Lee is one of two accused men, along with Gillio Lopes, who has called on the judge to remove New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case after James called Jane Doe a “survivor” on social media and said, “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.”
“It is the height of unfairness that an uncharged person like Mr. Lee, presumed to be innocent, should be investigated by anyone — much less the AG — who has already publicly endorsed the purported victim and concluded the accused are guilty,” his attorney, Teny Geragos, wrote in her Oct. 9 filing to have James removed.