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Tribune News Service

A day spa that led to prostitution charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. A business consulting firm offering foreign companies access to US President Donald Trump.
One person helped found both: Li Yang, better known as Cindy Yang.
Almost overnight, the China-born entrepreneur went from unknown Florida resident to the centre of attention with questions mounting about her businesses and political ties.
The story seems to be only getting weirder all centred in a state known for its bizarre news.

Spa businesses
Yang, 45, started a chain of Asian spas called Tokyo Day Spas throughout Florida, which included Orchids of Asia Day Spa where police say Kraft visited multiple times to solicit sexual favours.
Kraft’s charges resulted from a prostitution and sex trafficking probe of similar businesses – where massage parlours doubled as venues for prostitution.
About 300 others were charged in the probe.
Authorities say they have footage of Kraft visiting the Jupiter, Florida, spa and receiving oral sex in January, just hours before the AFC Championship Game where he watched the Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
Chinese women and US$59 sex acts in Jupiter, Florida – America’s ‘playground of the wealthy’
Police detailed that many women who worked at the spas were Chinese and forced to live at the spas against their will.
Yang, who was not charged in the investigation, told The Miami Herald she had previously sold the spa before the scandal involving Kraft.
The Miami Herald reports that her family still owns several South Florida spas and the Tokyo Day Spa chain has attracted police attention on allegations of similar prostitution activity.
When talking with The Miami Herald, Yang denied ever breaking the law but declined to answer questions about her knowledge of sex being offered at the spas.

Donations to Trump campaign
The Miami Herald reported Yang was not active in politics until the 2016 election and the rise of Donald Trump, noting records showed she hadn’t voted in 10 years.
But that changed after the 2016 election.
Since Trump has taken the White House, Yang and her relatives have donated more than US$42,000 to a Trump political action committee and more than US$16,000 to Trump’s campaign, The Miami Herald reported.
On a now-deleted website for Yang’s consulting business, she described herself as a “member of the presidential fundraising committee”.


Business promising access to White House
Yang also runs a consulting business that offers to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago, according to the company’s website.
Mother Jones, which broke the story Saturday, reported the company – GY US Investments LLC – has a website, mostly in Chinese, that shows her and purported clients hobnobbing at the presidential retreat.
It details Yang’s vast network within the Trump administration and Republican Party – including photos with the president, his family, members of Congress and key White House aides – and offers businesses and individuals a window into that network.
The company, founded in 2017 by Yang and her husband, Zubin Gong, describes itself as a consulting firm that helps businesses in America “expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace”.
The website lists events where Yang and others at the company mingled with the president and members of his cabinet, such as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
It boasts about opportunities for businesses and individuals where they can “have the opportunity to interact with the president” and other “political figures”.
It lists various dinners and charity events where the company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner”.
The site lists a fluid calendar of events, most including Trump, and a phone number for interested businesses and parties to call.

All the photos
Scanning through Yang’s Facebook page or her company website, one would think she was one of the most well-connected people in Washington.
The Miami Herald was the first to uncover photos of Yang with Trump and other high-profile figures, finding on her Facebook page that she’d watched this year’s Super Bowl at a party hosted by the president.
Yang snapped a selfie photo with Trump from the Super Bowl watch party, held at the president’s West Palm Beach country club, The Miami Herald reported.
Trump, a long-time friend of Kraft and a Patriots admirer, is seen leaning back in his chair and smiling with Yang and another woman who are seated at a table behind the president in the blurry photo. They watched New England beat the Los Angeles Rams for the franchise’s sixth championship.
An array of additional photos were uncovered Saturday after Mother Jones discovered a deleted website for Yang’s consulting business.
A cached version of the website from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, shows Yang attending a number of galas, dinners and political events, even getting an invite to the White House for one event.

If you didn't notice, those are photos of former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka and Fox News host Jesse Watters
— Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) March 9, 2019

The website shows photos of Yang with the president’s family, including sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jnr, top White House aide Kellyanne Conway, former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka and Fox News host Jesse Watters.
Between photos posted on social media and on her website, Yang is photographed with nearly everyone in Trump’s orbit, from prominent members of Congress such as Republican lawmaker Matt Gaetz and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale.
The webpage also lists photos from a December 2017 fundraising event in New York City where Trump made remarks about trade with China and a recent trip he took to the country.
The company wrote there was nearly 100 Chinese attendees at the event, “which marked the rise of Chinese political participation in politics”.
The page includes photos of attendees with Trump and Conway, who is dubbed “the hero of Trump’s presidency” on the website.
Yang is listed on her company’s website as “one of the only guests in South Florida who was invited to the White House to celebrate” the Lunar New Year in 2018.
Several photos of the event show Yang and others wearing what appears to be a White House-issued pass, which are given by security in order to gain access to the grounds.


Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago-trespasser deported to China two years after serving sentence

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft cleared of ‘Orchids of Asia’ massage parlour sex charge

Chinese Mar-a-Lago intruder Zhang Yujing ‘playing games with the court’, US judge says, as she refuses to answer questions out loud

FBI opens foreign money investigation into Chinese Donald Trump donor Cindy Yang

Cindy Yang

Who is Cindy Yang, China-born founder of Florida spa busted for prostitution – and how is she connected to Donald Trump?

Cindy Yang (front) snaps a selfie with US President Donald Trump at a Super Bowl watching party held at the president’s West Palm Beach country club on February 3. Photo: Facebook/Miami Herald/TNS)

JUPITER, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 22: Matthew Gizze, a N.Y. Jet football fan, stops to look at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa where New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is charged with allegedly soliciting for sex on February 22, 2019 in Jupiter, Florida. Mr. Kraft was caught up in a law enforcement operation in South Florida that netted hundreds of johns over the past two weeks. Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Future Florida governor Ron DeSantis (center) attended a pro-Israel gala at Mar-a-Lago on Feb. 25, 2018. The event was also attended by Cindy Yang (far left). Tickets cost $1,000 per person, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. (Facebook/Miami Herald/TNS)

ADDS KRAFT'S LAWYER STATEMENT OF NOT APPEARING - FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2018, file photo, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, arrives at U.S. Bank Stadium before the NFL Super Bowl 52 football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Minneapolis. Kraft has been ordered to appear at an arraignment hearing to face two counts of soliciting a prostitute. A notice to appear filed Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in West Palm Beach, Fla., says 77-year-old Kraft “must be present” at the March 28 hearing or he could be arrested on a failure to appear charge. Kraft’s attorney Jack Goldberger said, “The notice of appearance by the defendant is boilerplate, but in fact the lawyer appears for the defendant in a misdemeanor case. The defendant does not appear.” (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

Cindy Yang appears with Donald Trump Jr at a Mar-a-Lago gala in late 2018. (Facebook/Miami Herald/TNS)

Cindy Yang posed with Eric Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2019. (Facebook/Miami Herald/TNS)

Chinese women and US$59 sex acts in Jupiter, Florida - America’s ‘playground of the wealthy’

Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida was one of 10 shut down in the region after a long investigation showed the women in the spas were sex servants.

The owner of Orchids of Asia Day Spa, 58-year-old Hua Zhang, was arrested Tuesday on 29 prostitution and related charges.

epa07389063 (FILE) - New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft walks on to the field before the start of Super Bowl LII at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 04 February 2018 (reissued 22 February 2019). According to reports on 22 Fenruary 2019 Robert Kraft has been charged with two counts of soliciting sex in a case that authorities claim involved human trafficking. Kradt has denied the allegations. EPA-EFE/TANNEN MAURY

JUPITER, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 22: A camera man films the Orchids of Asia Day Spa after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is charged with allegedly soliciting for sex on February 22, 2019 in Jupiter, Florida. Mr. Kraft was caught up in a law enforcement operation in South Florida that netted hundreds of johns over the past two weeks. Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

JUPITER, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 22: Mark McGuire, a N.Y. Giants football fan, stands near the front door of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is charged with allegedly soliciting for sex on February 22, 2019 in Jupiter, Florida. Mr. Kraft was caught up in a law enforcement operation in South Florida that netted hundreds of johns over the past two weeks. Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

News

World

United States & Canada

Here’s everything we know about Cindy Yang and her businesses


A day spa that led to prostitution charges against New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. A consulting firm offering access to Donald Trump. One person helped found both: Cindy Yang.


United States

Donald Trump

Florida

Alleged Chinese influence on US politics