Lucknow-educated CEO named in Boston’s luxury brothel scandal

A high-end brothel near Harvard attracted influential clients, including Anurag Bajpayee, the Indian-origin CEO of Gradiant.

Updated on: Apr 11, 2025 6:01 PM IST

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A high-end brothel operating out of luxury apartments near Harvard University attracted executives, doctors, lawyers, and politicians, who submitted IDs, work badges, and personal references to gain access. According to the Wall Street Journal, the operation charged up to $600 (over ₹50,000) an hour for sex, and the detailed records it kept are now central to a series of criminal hearings dubbed “The Cambridge Brothel Hearings,” exposing over 30 prominent men who paid for sex. Among them is Anurag Bajpayee, CEO of Gradiant, a wastewater treatment firm valued at over $1 billion.

Anurag Bajpayee is the Indian-origin CEO of Gradiant.

Anurag Bajpayee was named in the Boston brothel scandal. According to the WSJ report, he is “alleged to have paid for sex at the brothel several times.” He was among several other CEOs named in court documents last month.

However, Gradiant is standing behind its CEO. “We believe in the justice system and are confident that this will resolve favorably in due course,” said Gradiant representative Felix Wang. “Unrelated to this, Gradiant will continue to pursue excellence in technological innovation and to strive towards our mission to ensure clean water for all society.”

Who is Anurag Bajpayee?

Anurag Bajpayee is the Indian-origin co-founder and CEO of Gradiant, a top wastewater treatment firm in the United States.

He holds a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), focusing on industrial desalination and water treatment.

Bajpayee’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he also holds a master’s degree from MIT in Mechanical Engineering. He graduated in 2008.

He has previously appeared in Scientific American’s annual Top 10 World-Changing Ideas for his innovation, which remains a foundation for Gradiant's proprietary technology stack.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Bajpayee completed his schooling at La Martiniere College, Lucknow. He graduated school in 2003.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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