Founder Of Spa Where Patriots Owner Kraft Was Busted Partied With President Trump On Super Bowl Sunday
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The woman who founded the line of day spas where New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was accused of soliciting prostitution has become a fixture at Republican events along the East Coast.
On Super Bowl Sunday, self-made entrepreneur Li Yang, 45, snapped a selfie of her and President Donald Trump at his Super Bowl party at Mar a Lago in February, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald.
In 2007, Yang started a chain of Asian day spas, many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas. In recent years they have gained a reputation for offering sexual services.
Nineteen days after Trump and Yang posed together while rooting for the Patriots, Kraft was charged with soliciting prostitution at an Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter that Yang had founded more than a decade earlier, according to the Herald. Kraft has denied breaking the law.
Yang said she had sold that spa around 2013 to another businesswoman, Hua Zhang, who was charged in February with racketeering and running a house of prostitution and has pleaded not guilty.
Yang's family still owns several South Florida spas, according to the Miami Herald.
Last month's multi-agency human trafficking investigation shut down 10 Asian spas in central and southern Florida. None of those spas were registered to Yang or any member of her family.
In a phone interview with the Miami Herald, Yang said she was out of that business and would soon be moving to Washington DC.
Over the last few years Yang, who goes by Cindy, has made regular appearances at Republican charity events, political fundraisers and galas.
Pictures on her social media page show her posing with President Trump, his two sons, Eric and Donald Jr., Republican Gover Ron DeSantis, Senator Rick Scott, Sarah Palin, and other high-level Republican operators.
In February 2018, Yang was invited by the White House to participate in an event hosted by the Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative, an advisory commission Trump established, according to the Miami Herald. Later in the year, she attended at least two more AAPI events in Washington D.C., according to her Facebook page.
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