Sex Trafficking at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa

[seemslikeadream]

Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, has become the center of a massive prostitution and human-trafficking bust involving multiple spas and massage parlors.

The spa, which has 2.5 out of 5 stars on Yelp, sits in a small strip mall off Highway 1

and about a 30 to 45 minute drive from Mar-a-Lago ...

Ex-Citigroup President Havens Caught Up in Prostitution Probe
By Matthew Townsend , Jennifer Surane , and Michelle Kim
February 22, 2019, 2:24 PM CST
John Havens

John Havens, Citigroup Inc.’s former president and chief operating officer, has been caught up in the same prostitution bust that has also ensnared New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft.

The names of Havens and Kraft were on a list of 25 men being charged for soliciting prostitution in a probe that spans multiple agencies, according to the police department in the city of Jupiter. Police cited video evidence from inside the Orchids of Asia massage parlor, and a broader investigation throughout the state has seen other charges brought.

Read more: Patriots owner Kraft also charged


“I have no idea what you are talking about,” a man who answered a listed phone number for Havens said when reached by phone. He then hung up and additional calls weren’t answered.

The entry on the list released by police matches Havens’ middle initial and date of birth. Havens has a home in Florida near Jupiter.

New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Accused Of Soliciting Sex At Florida Day Spa

People mill around in front of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida on Feb. 22.Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Havens, 62, took over as Citigroup’s president in 2011 after leading the bank’s investment banking and trading arm. Havens rose through the ranks in a two-decade career at Morgan Stanley, where he worked closely with Vikram Pandit. The pair started the hedge fund Old Lane Partners LP and then joined Citigroup when it bought the fund in 2007, with Pandit rising to chief executive officer of the bank shortly after.

Pandit and Havens navigated Citigroup through the 2008 financial crisis, which it survived with the help of a $45 billion U.S. bailout. Havens resigned from Citigroup on the same day Pandit quit in 2012 under pressure from the bank’s board. Since then, Havens has served as chairman of Citigroup’s former hedge-fund arm, Napier Park Global Capital, and joined the board of advisers of Money360, a commercial real estate lender.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... tion-probe

Florida human trafficking: Billionaire equity firm owner John Childs wanted on prostitution charge in Vero Beach

Ali SchmitzUpdated 6:46 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2019
The Vero Beach Police Department hosts a news conference Feb. 21, 2019 detailing a prostitution and human trafficking ring that was busted across Treasure Coast, Palm Beach and Orange counties. Hannah Schwab, hannah.schwab@tcpalm.com

Billionaire equity firm owner John Childs is one of several men accused of soliciting prostitution in connection with a Florida spa tied to an international human trafficking ring, police said Thursday.

Childs, who lives seasonally in Indian River Shores, is wanted on a solicitation of prostitution charge, according to a warrant for his arrest. He has not been arrested.

Childs owns J.W. Childs Associates, a private equity firm based in Massachusetts.

He's a prominent donor to several Republican politicians and groups, including former U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Club for Growth and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.




He donated about $4.3 million to Republican candidates and PACs last cycle, according to a review of federal campaign finance records.

John Childs
John Childs (Photo11: Contributed photo)
More: Human trafficking in Vero Beach and Sebastian massage parlors

More: Indian River spas connected to human trafficking arrests opened within past two years

His largest donation, $250,000, went to America First Action, a pro-Donald Trump super PAC. Senate Conservative Action, Freedom Partners Action Fund and the National Republican Senate Committee all received large contributions over the past two years.

Other large contributions have gone to Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Rep. Mimi Walters of California.

He also gave $600,000 to Gov. Ron DeSantis' gubernatorial campaign last year.

Dig Deeper

Local human trafficking case

Childs has not responded to an interview request from TCPalm as of Friday evening. He told Bloomberg that police have not reached out to him about the charge.

"The accusation of solicitation of prostitution is totally false," Childs told the outlet. "I have retained a lawyer.”

Childs also lives part-time outside of Boston. According to AffluenceIQ, a website run by another Massachusetts-based equity firm, his net worth is $1.2 billion.

AA Massage, 1547 U.S. 1, Sebastian
3 Photos

Vero Beach, Sebastian spas identified in human trafficking, prostitution...

Next Slide
Childs in the former president of Ducks Unlimited's Wetlands America Trust.

More: Patriots owner Robert Kraft charged with soliciting prostitution in Florida spa

In 2008, he told TCPalm he moved to Vero Beach to escape the cold.

"I had friends there and I came down, liked what I saw. There were ducks, water fowl, porpoises in the river, even a resident bald eagle in a tree half a mile away, and so I settled in Vero Beach," he said.

More: Indian River County benefactor Ken Wessel arrested as part of Florida human trafficking sting

A six-month investigation revealed human traffickers were luring vulnerable women to massage parlors in Indian River County, where they were coerced into working as prostitutes, Vero Beach Police announced Thursday.

Indian River County agencies issued warrants for 173 people, on charges ranging from human trafficking to racketeering to soliciting prostitution.

USA TODAY reporter Brett Murphy contributed to this report.

George Troncone, 65, of Stuart, charged with soliciting prostitution and use of structure or conveyance for prostitution.
26 Photos

Human trafficking investigation: Prostitution arrests begin in Martin Co...
https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime ... 953948002/

Everything to know about the Florida spa at the center of the Robert Kraft sex scandal

Katie Warren
A day spa in Florida has become the center of a massive prostitution and human-trafficking bust involving multiple spas and massage parlors.
Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, is where Patriots owner Robert Kraft is accused of paying for sexual services. He was charged Friday with 2 counts of soliciting prostitution.
The spa, which police found through the illicit massage website rubmaps.com, is in a strip mall about 30 minutes from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
It offers services including waxing, antiaging facials, acne treatment, and 11 different types of massages, including a "Tokyo Ultimate 4 Hand" massage.
Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, has become the epicenter of a large-scale human-trafficking and prostitution investigation involving multiple spas and massage parlors.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged Friday with two counts of soliciting prostitution. He was allegedly a customer at Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, which is about 20 miles from Palm Beach and 30 minutes from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.

Jupiter police said Kraft paid for sexual services at the spa and that there is video evidence of Kraft in both instances. Kraft has denied any illegal activity. So far, 173 people have been charged with crimes in the bust.

Police said women lived in the parlors and were coerced into having sex for money.
https://www.businessinsider.com/robert- ... spa-2019-2

Robert Kraft, Announced as Recipient of 'Jewish Nobel,' Charged in Prostitution Bust
Prominent philanthropist who has donated heavily to Jewish and Israeli causes is supposed to be given Genesis Prize in June

Haaretz and Reuters Feb 22, 2019 7:28 PM


In this Feb. 3, 2019, file photo, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft holds the Vince Lombardi trophy after the NFL Super Bowl 53 football game against the Los Angeles Rams, in Atlanta.AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File

Robert Kraft, Jewish philanthropist and New England Patriots owner, to receive 2019 Genesis Prize

Following Natalie Portman PR disaster, Genesis Prize goes to loyal friend of Netanyahu – and Trump

Trump ally Kraft 'deeply disappointed' by U.S. president's NFL comments

Robert Kraft, the owner of the NFL Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, was charged with solicitation as part of a prostitution bust in Jupiter, Florida, on Friday, local media reported, citing police officials.
The Genesis Prize Foundation announced in January that Kraft, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, would receive the 2019 Genesis Prize, also known as the "Jewish Nobel."


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is supposed to present the $1-million award to Kraft during a ceremony in Jerusalem in June. In keeping with tradition, Kraft will donate the money to a cause of his choice – "initiatives combatting anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice as well as attempts to de-legitimize the State of Israel." The foundation wrote that Kraft has "spoken out publicly and donated generously" to such organizations.

Two proprietors of Orchids of Asia Day Spa were arrested on Tuesday along with 25 people in the local and state investigation, which was focused on possible human trafficking, Jupiter police Chief Robert Kerr said.
Authorities have gathered video evidence to support the charges for each person, Kerr said. Kraft is accused of visiting the business on two separate occasions to solicit sex.
A spokesman for Kraft and the Patriots, Aaron Salkin, said in a statement, "We categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity. Because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting further."
Kraft, 77, chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group – a holding company with assets in paper, packaging, real estate and sports teams – is a large-scale philanthropist who has donated heavily to Jewish and Israeli causes, as well as $1 million to U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Before this month's Super Bowl, Trump said on "Face the Nation" that he would be backing his good friend and long time supporter Kraft to win.
The Genesis Prize was established by Mikhail Fridman and other wealthy Russian-Jewish businessmen and operates in a partnership with Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office and the Jewish Agency for Israel. The award "honors extraordinary individuals for their outstanding professional achievement, contribution to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values and Israel," according to the foundation.
Last year's ceremony was mired in controversy and was ultimately canceled after recipient Natalie Portman said she would not take part in light of "recent events."
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/robert- ... -1.6959797

[Grizzly]

This is squid ink, to cover up the bigger issues of Human Trafficking, imo. This is NOT an insult to the poster, slad, but it does seem like thread splitting.

[seemslikeadream]

clarification

are you talking about dup threads?

[Grizzly]

Yes. Perhaps... depends on your meaning of, "Dup threads", I guess..

Further clarification, by squid ink, I don't mean you are your post, but the story itself ... It seems to distract from the ongoing Billionaires and trillionaires who can buy sex slaves out right.

[seemslikeadream]

that 14 year old cooperation is now gone.....decided by Jack Mac and conniption ..it's a shame but that's the way THEY want it not me so now I will do it their way

uh you have participated in some of these dup threads and did NOT say a word I am surprised that you do not remember that and only bring it up in my thread.... you certainly did not care that these threads were dups "distract from the ongoing"

I don't understand why you felt the need...or maybe on second thought I do

my interpretation of some of the dup threads made lately

US troops leave Syria?
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41471&p=667750&hilit=afghanistan#p667750

US troops surround Syria on the eve of invasion?
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=33717&p=667653&hilit=afghanistan#p667653

Venezuela
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40492

Venezuela - U.S. Again Tries Regime Change...
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41551

Skripal: Theresa May set to hit back Russia over spy attack
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40882

The Silence of the Skripals
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41004

Julian Assange, 2018: Year 6 in Ecuador's Embassy, London
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40987

Assange Amazing Adventures of Captain Neo in Blonde Land.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=29320

Paul Manafort
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40370&p=669991&hilit=paul+manafort#p669991

Real Manafort and "Russiagate" story is out
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41315&p=669607&hilit=paul+manafort#p669607

[Grizzly]

Nevermind, slad. Geez, your really hard to communicate with, your seeing EVERYTHING as a slight or persecution toward you personally. It's a real downer. I think we want the same things, but just see things from different angles. I have no ill will toward you, and appreciate the vast majority of your posts. But you see hostility, in every engagement we have. Please stop clumping me in with ANY alliance AGAINST you. It's just not so. Damn it!

[seemslikeadream]

I just lost another good friend yesterday and I am in a foul mood about it sorry...I will gladly hit the fresh button with you ...hopefully we can move forward in peace ....that’s what I would love to see happen

[Grizzly]

Sorry for your loss, we had to put our cat down, today.... I'm still in shock, but have seen way to much death. Yes consider the refresh button pushed. However having said, that I thought this recent post from reddit, might be of interest....

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/av5nk7/isnt_it_weird_that_a_run_down_hand_job_parlor/

Isn't it weird that a run down hand job parlor netted the arrest of at least three billionaires? Kraft, Havens and Childs (Who funded Panama Papers)?

Random commenter:

I wonder if this place offers more "extreme" services than your average rub n tug. I'm not guessing at what type, could be some sadistic torture shit or epic scat play I don't even begin to know. Whatever the nature of that place is, it's different than what's being reported, because there's no way some run of the mill, low rent brothel is just going to randomly end up being a hot destination for the elite.

So maybe this is deeper, maybe more will be revealed?

[seemslikeadream]

From Steele dossier




A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago


around the time that Yang started GY and gained access to Trump and others in the GOP, including Trump’s children, even as Ivanka Trump received numerous trademark approvals from China in the last two years, including for massage parlors and spas.

Daniel Schulman
‏
MORE on Cindy Yang from me, Yang is a senior official of two groups with ties to the Chinese government

Here's what @Susan_Hennessey and @sam_vinograd said yesterday about Yang's Mar-a-Lago access-peddling. This seems worth underscoring, especially in light of Yang's affiliations.

Jupiter spa bust: Search warrants reveal how detectives planted hidden cameras

By: Merris Badcock
JUPITER, Fla. — Under the guise of a “tactical ruse.” detectives escorted two Asian women out of a day spa in Jupiter so they could plant “covert video surveillance equipment” inside “four massage rooms and the lobby”.

The mission? To capture evidence of prostitution inside the now infamous Orchids of Asia Day Spa.

New information about a months-long prostitution investigation was released to Contact 5 and the public on Friday after a judge unsealed three search warrants related to the case; an investigation which landed hundreds in jail from Palm Beach County to the Treasure Coast.

Part of the investigation centered around "sneak and peek" warrants: search warrants signed by a judge which allow detectives to secretly record a business or person in question.

The three warrants released on Friday were filed Feb. 19, the same day detectives raided the day spa. The warrant shows detectives were looking for access to things like bank accounts and a safety deposit box, after interviewing two alleged madams, Hua Zhang, and Lei Wang.

However, they also reveal more about how detectives got cameras inside the spa.

On January 17, the day of the “tactical ruse”. Nearby business owners told Contact 5 they remember the police activity and found it odd that no other business was being targeted by police.

While the two women stood outside the spa, detectives planted the cameras , according to the warrants.

But they were being watched. According to the warrants, Zhang, president of the company, showed up to the scene. She told detectives she could “see what was going on inside the spa” thanks to video cameras that beamed signals to her cell phone.

Investigators confirmed they saw other cameras inside the business when they went in to install the hidden surveillance equipment.

Because of Zhang’s admission, detectives sought to seize those camera s too because they believed Zhang’s “cameras captured evidence of the ongoing activity of prostitution in the business.”

They also put tracking devices on vehicles belonging to Zhang and Wang . According to the warrants, the tracking devices connected Wang and Zhang to one another outside of the spa and connected Zhang to another alleged illicit day spa in Martin County.

As a result of evidence gathered in the case, including video evidence inside the spa, Jupiter police detectives charged 25 men with soliciting prostitution. Alongside Jupiter, four other police agencies charged hundreds of more ‘Johns’ as the result of both independent and multi-agency investigations executed in similar fashions.

The list of ‘johns’ included New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The billionaire has since denied his involvement and pleaded not guilty to two counts of solicitation.

The warrant shows Jupiter detectives identified each man through their license plate, driver’s license, and in some cases, even pulled them over after the alleged sex act took place.

According to Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, only out-of-state ‘johns’ were issued a low-level arrest warrant (which may have resulted in a mug shot). In-state "johns" were given a notice to appear in court.

Aronberg identified Kraft as a Florida resident and told reporters Kraft’s attorney was given a notice to appear on his client’s behalf. However, according to the warrant, Kraft was identified by Jupiter detectives through his driver’s license, during a traffic stop.

It’s unclear how Kraft was identified as a Florida resident with the State Attorney’s Office. Contact 5 reached out a spokesperson after business hours on Friday. We are waiting to hear back from them.

The warrants also reveal detectives relied on two illicit massage parlor locator websites for leads: RubMaps.com and USASexGuide.nl. Lead investigator Andrew Sharp included screenshots from the site, with reviews specifically about ‘rub and tugs’ at Orchids of Asia.
https://www.wptv.com/news/region-n-palm ... en-cameras

should trump be amenable to giving back the $16,000 Yang donated to his presidential campaign before gifting $42,000 to a PAC called trump Victory in 2017.


trump, his grown sons, and his Florida flunkies should prepare to answer a lot of tough questions about their disturbing connections to human traffickers.

emptywheel

We're going to eventually learn that the woman who started Kraft's massage parlour has a role in all the Chinese trademarks Ivanka keeps getting, aren't we?

David Rothkopf
‏
If the president is letting a Chinese madam sell access at Mar-a-Lago to Chinese business people while his friends are getting serviced at businesses she started, he is exposing himself and the country to massive blackmail risk. Surely the IC and FBI are aware of this.

Cindy Yang, the founder of the Florida spa where Bob Kraft was busted for soliciting prostitution, wasn’t just posing for selfies with members of trumpworld. She's been selling Chinese business executives access to trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago

A Florida Massage Parlor Owner Has Been Selling Chinese Execs Access to Trump at Mar-a-Lago

The strange, swampy saga of Trump donor Li Yang.

DAVID CORN, DAN FRIEDMAN AND DANIEL SCHULMAN
MARCH 9, 2019 6:26 AM


The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” (She told the newspaper she has never violated the law.) Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business—which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—suggests she had some success in doing so.

Yang, who goes by Cindy, and her husband, Zubin Gong, started GY US Investments LLC in 2017. The company describes itself on its website, which is mostly in Chinese, as an “international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace.” But the firm notes that its services also address clients looking to make high-level connections in the United States. On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.” 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 same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)

The short bio of Yang on the website, identifying her as the founder and CEO of GY US Investments, shows her in a photo with Trump bearing his signature. It says she has been “settled in the United States for more than 20 years” and is a member of the “Presidential Fundraising Committee.” According to the Herald, Yang is a registered Republican, and since 2017 she and her relatives have donated more than $42,000 to a Trump political action committee and more than $16,000 to Trump’s campaign. Her Facebook page, which was taken offline on Friday, was loaded with photos of her posing with GOP notables: Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Matt Gaetz or Florida, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, among others.

On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.”
The GY US Investments website lists upcoming events at Mar-a-Lago at which Yang’s clients presumably can mingle with Trump or members of his family. This includes something called the International Leaders Elite Forum, where Trump’s sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, will supposedly be the featured speaker. Attendees, the site says, will include “Chinese elites from various countries, including the US states, as well as elite leaders from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Europe and other countries and regions.” Another event for which Yang’s firm says it can provide access is Trump’s annual New Year’s celebration at Mar-a-Lago. Elsewhere on the website, the firm boasts that “GY Company arranged a number of guests to attend the 2019 New Year’s Eve dinner. All the guests took photos with” members of Trump’s family. This page displays photos of Chinese executives and a Chinese movie star with Donald Trump Jr., suggesting that these pics were arranged by the company, and also includes a photo of Yang with Elizabeth Trump Grau.


A flier posted on GY US Investments’ website publicizing an upcoming event at Mar-A-Lago featuring the president’s sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau.
Among the Chinese executives who attended that New Year’s event was Huachu Tang, the owner of an electric car company. Tang told Yahoo Finance that he flew 17 hours from Xi’an, China, with his family and an assistant in hopes of meeting with Trump at the party. Though he reportedly speaks almost no English, Tang said he hoped to use a Trump connection to build up his company’s brand before eventually taking it public on the New York Stock Exchange. Trump, however, canceled his trip to Mar-a-Lago due to the government shutdown. Tang and his wife managed to pose for pictures with Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Trump Grau. Tang told Yahoo that he received admission to the New Year’s party through a package offered by a public relations agency—perhaps Yang’s firm. According to Yahoo, the company Tang used declined to reveal the price of the package, citing the confidentiality of the contract.






The GY US Investments website also posted photos of Yang at a White House celebration of the “Asian New Year” in 2018 and at a Chinese New Year dinner celebration that purportedly included Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Transportation Secretary Chao. The firm says it invited 10 guests to the Chinese New Year event and the website shows several of them posing with Chao.

According to the website, the company has offices in Miami; Washington, DC; and Wuhan, China, and is preparing to open an office in Beijing. But the address of its office in the Washington area matches the location of a UPS store.

Yang and her business partners listed on the GY US Investments’ website could not be reached for comment. No one responded to messages left at the number for GY US Investments. A man who answered a phone number listed for Yang hung up. A man who picked up the phone at a number listed for the company’s Washington-area office said, “My English isn’t good,” and hung up. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders and Trump Grau did not respond to requests for comment.

The overall message conveyed by the GY US Investments website seems clear: hire Yang’s company and she can get you close to Trump and his government—at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington. If the posted photos are authentic, she has been able to get Chinese clients at least into the Trump circle for a quick pic. They are a sign that this Chinese immigrant and Trump donor has used her contacts to go from massaging clients to massaging influence.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... ar-a-lago/

The Massage Parlor Owner Peddling Access to Trump Has Ties to Chinese Government-Linked Groups

The Cindy Yang caper takes another turn.

Daniel Schulman, David Corn and Dan Friedman
March 10, 2019 2:49 PM

Yang, left, attends the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Looking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.

Li Yang, the Florida massage parlor entrepreneur who created and operated a business that sold Chinese business executives access to President Donald Trump and his family at Mar-a-Lago, has yet another intriguing line of work. She is an officer of two groups with ties to China’s Communist government. And she founded a Miami-based nonprofit that promotes “economic and cultural exchange” between China and the West in coordination with “senior…Chinese leaders” in the United States, according to a profile of Yang posted on a Chinese social media platform.

After Mother Jones on Saturday revealed that Yang, who goes by Cindy, had been peddling entrée to the Trump family, the Trump White House, and assorted GOP powerbrokers, national security experts noted that this situation could pose a threat, presenting opportunities for espionage or blackmail targeting the president and his inner circle. They expressed concern the Yang’s efforts to broker interactions with Trump and his clan could be exploited by Chinese intelligence. “Guess who else has 100% known about this from the beginning?” tweeted Susan Hennessey, a Brookings Institution fellow who previously worked as a National Security Agency lawyer. “Chinese intelligence services.” Samantha Vinograd, a CNN national security analyst who worked for the National Security Council during the Obama administration, noted: “Our intel community has said China poses one of the most significant counterintelligence challenges—my money is on the Chinese Govt having at least picked up on [Yang’s] access if they didn’t direct it.”

No direct evidence of any such activity has yet emerged. When Mother Jones tried to reach Yang at different phone numbers, each time a man answered the phone, said he did not speak English, and hung up. And Yang did not respond to emails. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders did not respond to questions about security issues raised by Yang’s access. But these apparent links between Yang and Chinese government-related entities will likely fuel concerns that Yang’s actions could have a foreign influence or intelligence angle.

Prior to the 2016 presidential campaign, Yang, who emigrated to the United States from China about 20 years ago and who once worked as a journalist for a Chinese-language television network covering Silicon Valley, had no political profile. She and her family owned and operated a chain of Florida massage parlors, including the one where New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was busted last month for soliciting prostitution. (Yang sold that particular spa around 2013, but her family continues to own massage parlors, including several that have a developed “a reputation for offering sexual services,” according to the Miami Herald. Yang has denied violating the law.) During the 2016 election, Yang dove aggressively into presidential politics, first helping to organize events for former Florida governor Jeb Bush before throwing her support behind Trump.

According to the profile of Yang that appears on the Chinese-language site Freewechat—which compiles posts from the Chinese social media platform WeChat—she was invited in 2016 “to serve as a member of the National Committee of the Asian American Republican Party.” The story notes that Yang was also tapped for senior roles in two other groups focused on China-related issues: the Florida branch of the Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China (CPPRC) and the Miami chapter of the American arm of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology. Both organizations have direct links to China’s Communist Party, and the CPPRC has been described as a vehicle for projecting Chinese influence in the West.


The Freewechat post includes a picture of Yang attending an event of the “Florida Peaceful Reunification Promotion Association.”
According to the Jamestown Foundation, a conservative think tank, the CPPRC, which advocates for China absorbing Taiwan, has affiliated chapters throughout the world. This organization, the think tank says, “maintains numerous branches in the United States, including chapters in New York, San Francisco, and other major cities. The national headquarters branch in the United States is the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU), located in Washington, D.C.” It adds, “The organization also takes pains both within China and without to present itself as one that represents broad sections of Chinese society outside of the Communist Party… However, such statements are misleading, and a cursory examination of the organization’s leadership structure reveals that the CPPRC is directly subordinate to the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.” In July, the Daily Beast reported, “‘Peaceful reunification associations’—the term refers to Beijing’s intent to obtain sovereignty over Taiwan—have a close relationship with the [Communist Party’s] United Front Work Department, in some cases functioning almost as an extension of its Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.”

The China Association for Science and Technology describes itself as “a bridge that links the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government to the country’s science and technology community.” It is currently headed by a former minister of science and technology, and its leadership structure is full of Communist Party officials. In 1992, the China Association for Science and Technology, USA was founded in New York and since then affiliates have formed in locations including Washington, DC and South Florida. On the website of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology in South Florida, Yang is listed as vice president and pictured at events organized by the group.

In 2015, Yang formed a charity, initially called the Overseas International Female Organization (its name was subsequently changed to the Women’s Charity Foundation), stating in its incorporation records that its mission was to promote “cultural and economic exchange between China” and the West. The Freewechat profile of Yang notes that this organization, which does not appear to have nonprofit status, was formed jointly with “senior overseas Chinese leaders,” which seems to be a reference to leaders of the Chinese-American community. The year the organization was founded, Yang, as its representative, was invited to attend the welcoming ceremony for three Chinese warships that docked in Florida along with the Chinese ambassador to the United States and China’s consul general.

Yang has justifiably drawn scrutiny as a Trump donor who tried to cash in on her connections within the Trump-GOP cosmos, raising questions about whether she was working with people in Trump’s orbit. Her involvement with groups connected to the Chinese government and the Communist Party prompt additional questions about her activities.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... indy-yang/

Trump cheered Kraft’s team to Super Bowl victory with founder of spa where he was busted

Caitlin OstroffMarch 02, 2019 1:43 PM
Seated at a round table littered with party favors and the paper-cutout footballs that have become tradition at his annual Super Bowl Watch Party, President Donald Trump cheered the New England Patriots and his longtime friend, team owner Robert Kraft, to victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 3.

Sometime during the party at Trump’s West Palm Beach country club, the president turned in his chair to look over his right shoulder, smiling for a photo with two women at a table behind him.

The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Over the years, these establishments — many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas — have gained a reputation for offering sexual services.

Nineteen days after Trump and Yang posed together while rooting for the Patriots, authorities would charge Kraft with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter that Yang had founded more than a decade earlier.

Yang says she had long since sold Orchids of Asia Day Spa, the massage parlor where authorities say they caught Kraft on camera paying for oral sex the morning of the Jan. 20 AFC Championship game — his second visit in 24 hours. (Kraft has denied breaking the law.) Yang, who goes by Cindy, was not charged in the multi-agency anti-human trafficking operation last month that shut down 10 Asian day spas in Florida, none of which are registered to her or her family.

The Kraft bust brought global attention to the proliferation of Asian day spas across the country, some of which are thinly disguised houses of prostitution — and experts say could be engaged in human trafficking to fill demand.


Patriots owner Robert Kraft charged with soliciting prostitution

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter, Fla.

By Eric Garland

Yang’s family still owns several South Florida spas. The family’s Tokyo Day Spa branches have attracted the attention of at least two local police agencies over allegations of prostitution, and are discussed online as places where men can pay for sexual extras.

“If you’re just wanting to get a ‘rub and tug,’ this might be one of the best places in West Palm Beach,” one Internet commenter wrote about a Tokyo Day Spas’ parlor. A massage therapist at a different location informed police in late 2016 that some employees at the parlor were selling sex and said management encouraged the behavior.

CindyandthePresident.jpg
Cindy Yang poses with President Donald Trump at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on March 2, 2018. She received a signed photograph. A flyer for the event advertised a “reception, photo and two seats for a dinner with President Trump” for a donation of $50,000.

In a brief phone interview, Yang said she and her family have never broken the law, but did not answer questions about whether she knew of the allegations that therapists in her spas were offering sex. She added that she was out of the business, would soon be moving to Washington, D.C., and didn’t want any negative press.

Before the 2016 general election, Yang offered no evidence of political engagement. She hadn’t voted in 10 years, records showed. But she has now become a fixture at Republican political events up and down the East Coast. Her Facebook is covered in photos of herself standing with President Trump, his two sons, Eric and Donald Jr., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, Sarah Palin, the president’s campaign manager and an assortment of other high-level Republican operators she has met at charity events, political fundraisers and galas, many of which require hefty donations to attend. She sometimes carries a rhinestone encrusted MAGA clutch purse.


Photo6.jpg
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.

Yang has shown considerable political largesse. Since 2017, she and her close relatives have contributed more than $42,000 to Trump Victory, a political action committee, and more than $16,000 to the president’s campaign.

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 by executive order the year before. Later in the year, she attended at least two more AAPI events in Washington D.C., according to her Facebook page.

The White House, the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

Hangers-on

As some established political elites have distanced themselves from the president, a new group of people is filling open seats at political events.

Some are businessmen like Kraft who have always been influential because of their wealth but under Trump have gained added political status. (Months before the bust, Trump thanked Kraft for his role in a major international success: Clinching the 2026 World Cup for North America.)

Others in the Trump orbit are political novices like Yang, who came to the United States roughly 20 years ago.

In 2007, Yang started what would become a large chain of Tokyo Day Spas.

tokyo day spa pb.JPG
Cindy Yang and her family members operate the Tokyo Day Spa & Massages parlor, as well as a nail salon, at a strip mall in Palm Beach Gardens. It is part of a chain of spas the family controls.

Sarah Blaskey sblaskey@MiamiHerald.com

The first to open was her flagship, which is still in business and run by her husband, Zubin Gong, in Palm Beach Gardens.

The next was a Tokyo Day Spa in Jupiter that would later become Orchids of Asia after Yang sold it to another businesswoman, Hua Zhang, around 2013. Zhang, who was charged in February with racketeering and running a house of prostitution and has pleaded not guilty, declined to comment when contacted at her Martin County home.

Online reviews from prior to 2013 suggest sex was for sale at the Tokyo Day Spa Jupiter location even before it became Orchids of Asia. Although the name and ownership of the location have changed, the decor has not. A photo from a Tokyo Day Spa Yelp review shows the same couch, the same wall hanging and the same faux plant as now.

“Used to be known as Tokyo Day Spa and Massage — most of the same girls still work there,” a Yelp reviewer wrote of Orchids of Asia in 2013.

Over the past decade, Yang and her family members have opened at least six locations across Palm Beach and Broward counties, including a massage school established in 2011 and several nail salons. In at least three cases, online classifieds written in Chinese indicate Yang opened the spas and then flipped them, advertising sale prices ranging from $55,000 to $88,000.

Organized networks of massage parlors offering sex are common, according to Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ending human trafficking in the sex work industry. The parlors have licenses, allowing them operate the illicit part of their businesses behind a smokescreen of legitimacy.

“Having a school associated with several locations that are engaged in illicit massage business — It’s one more way of appearing legitimate,” Miles said, commenting generally rather than specifically on Tokyo Day Spas. He said the owners of such chains often use schools to recruit and groom women to work in their parlors, even giving them the answers to the licensing exams ahead of time if they are good candidates for sex work.

Nationally, the illicit massage industry is worth over $2.5 billion, according to Polaris.

Yang also owns several residential properties around South Florida, including a tiny $240,000 condo on Miami’s waterfront. She built her success on hard work and long hours, according to an online profile of Yang that was posted on dondonsex.com. The site also features classified ads for erotic massage services. It’s unclear who posted Yang’s profile there or why.

Sex for sale

When a female massage therapist started finding used condoms in the trash at one of Yang’s Tokyo Day Spas, she became concerned that the parlor was not what it seemed.

The woman, who spoke only Mandarin, asked an English-speaking relative to call police after she heard the sounds of sex coming from several private massage rooms. Her tip led a police vice squad to begin surveilling the parlor from a van parked outside, the woman told the Miami Herald in an interview. Cops hidden in the vehicle took photographs of the people coming and going. The woman said she went undercover, snapping pictures of receipts when no one was looking. After the trash was taken outside, she would call her relative, who would then ring up the cops.

“There should be some condoms out back,” the relative would report.

The woman, who asked the Herald to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, slept on a massage bed in a back room during her time at the spa. She cooked on a hotplate.

On one occasion, the former therapist was giving a customer a massage when he exposed himself and demanded oral sex. She said she ran from the room crying. A manager was angry that the customer had been treated “badly,” the woman said.

“You cannot hurt the customers’ feelings,” the manager later said at a staff meeting, according to the woman.

No charges appear to have been brought as a result of the investigation. The Herald reviewed documents related to the case but is not naming the police department in order to preserve the woman’s anonymity.

That wasn’t the only Tokyo Day Spa location where sex was allegedly available.

On Feb. 7, 2014, a man called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He had gone to Tokyo Day Spas branch in Royal Palm Beach , where a therapist touched him in an “inappropriate genital area” and continued to do so even after he said no, according to a police report.

Six spas within the Tokyo Day Spas chain show up on online forums like rubmaps.com and adultsearch.com, which are crowd-sourced review sites where users point each other to spas where sex is offered.

False positives on those sites are unlikely, according to the Polaris Project.

“I don’t think the guys have any interest in claiming a place was something it’s not,” Myles from Polaris said. “The guys have an interest in [identifying] where you really can buy sex.”

Online ads on obscure websites also raise flags about Yang’s businesses. In an ad written in Chinese recruiting masseuses, Yang stated that anyone over the age of 45 need not apply. Phone numbers associated with members of the Yang family are connected to various apparently old online advertisements for more explicit sex services. One advertises a masseuse who makes hotel visits.

In a 2016 Yelp review of the Tokyo Day Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, a woman wrote that her husband went in for a 15-minute, $40 massage, but was offered unwanted sexual favors instead.

“Stay far away unless you’re into that kind of thing,” she wrote.

In a reply to the review, the business posted an apology from someone identified as “Cindy Y.”

“We are very sorry to hear what happened to your husband,” Cindy Y. wrote. “We do not offer those kinds of service[s] and we will do everything necessary to make sure this does not happen again.”

Photo2.jpg
Cindy Yang appears with Donald Trump Jr at a Mar-a-Lago gala in late 2018.

On rubmaps.com, one comment warns that “your mileage may vary” at Tokyo Day Spas, meaning sex may not be available depending on the therapist.

“Been here many times, some play, some don’t,” a man wrote in 2016.

But others raved.

“I had one of those toe curling experiences,” a reviewer said.

Political awakening

Around three years ago, Yang announced that she was pursuing a “new life” in a series of Facebook posts.

Her portfolio broadened to include an investment consulting business, a travel agency and a charity.

The charity, founded in 2015 under the name Overseas International Female Organization, was originally intended to promote cultural exchanges for women, according to its mission statement. A few months later, the name was changed to Women’s Charity Foundation. The foundation once hosted a beauty pageant at the luxury Biltmore Hotel featuring young women brought in by “entertainment companies,” according to one of the event’s co-sponsors, Li Yun, who told the Miami Herald the event was “embarrassing,” “unsuccessful” and “disorganized.” The nonprofit doesn’t appear in a database of active Florida charities.

At the very end of 2015, Yang began donating small amounts of money to Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign. In 2016, Yang posted Facebook photos from a Republican women’s event in South Florida with the caption: “The new life will start.”

Around that time, she appears to have pulled her name from the official business records related to Tokyo Day Spas, though her husband still manages at least one of the spas and other companies are now under her parents’ names. Recently, one of her businesses, now listed in her mother’s name, declared bankruptcy, listing more than $150,000 of debt.

When Donald Trump became a serious candidate for president, politics began to dominate her social media presence.

In January 2017, she was in the crowd at Trump’s inauguration in Washington D.C. Later that year, she snapped a photo with Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. In December, she attended her first elite event at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, a poolside steak lunch.

In September 2018, Yang received a personalized note from the president and first lady. It read: “Thank you for your friendship and dedication to our cause. Leaders like you in Florida are the key to fulfilling our bold agenda to Make America Great Again!”

Yang told the Miami Herald she doesn’t know the president personally, and that she doesn’t work for him, other than to volunteer for campaign events.

“I just come to some events. There’s nothing special,” Yang said. Although she has claimed online to be a member of Trump clubs, she told the Herald she does not in fact belong to any.

Yang opened an investment consulting firm in 2017 targeting Chinese businesses hoping to expand to U.S. markets. The website advertises her new political connections, and promises her clients pictures with the president and other high-level members of his administration. Much of its website showcases photographs of her own encounters with the Trump family and other high-profile conservatives.

Photo1.jpg
Cindy Yang posed with Eric Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2019.
Over the past two years, Yang has racked up a who’s who of photos with politicians at more than a dozen political events. She has enough pictures of the president’s private clubs to fill an album.

In 2018, she attended a Safari Night at Mar-a-Lago hosted by the president’s sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, as well as the White House’s celebration of the Lunar New Year at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. She took photos with Florida’s soon-to-be-governor, Ron DeSantis, at a pro-Israel gala held at Mar-a-Lago, met U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao in Washington D.C., and posed with Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast and former Florida Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam.

She was photographed with Donald Trump Jr. at a winter Mar-a-Lago gala for Turning Points USA, the conservative college organization, and met Eric Trump last month.

In January, she attended the Sunshine Ball in Washington D.C. hosted by Rick Scott, snagging a photo with the newly elected senator.

She has also posted photos of herself meeting conservative celebrities, including former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, onetime Trump administration adviser Sebastian Gorka, Fox News host Jesse Watters and actor Jon Voight.

Photo8.jpg
Cindy Yang attended Sen. Rick Scott’s Sunshine Ball in Washington D.C. on Jan. 8. The event asked $25,000 for a photo opportunity with Scott.

Her Super Bowl selfie with Trump was captioned: “We love our president.”

It’s not clear exactly what level of scrutiny she was subjected to in order to get that close to Trump.

Anyone “expected to be within close proximity to the president for a planned purpose” at Mar-a-Lago must go through an “enhanced background check” by the Secret Service and other federal agencies, according to a January report by the Government Accountability Office.

No one contacted by the Herald said they recognized Yang.

Brad Stewart, deputy chief of staff for Mast, said the Republican congressman “doesn’t know Yang or remember meeting her” at the Palm Beach GOP Lincoln Day Dinner at Mar-a-Lago on March 16, 2018.

Chris Hartline, Rick Scott’s communications director, said the senator had “met literally hundreds of thousands of people over his eight years as governor. He doesn’t know this woman.”

DeSantis’ press office did not respond to a request for comment.


Shedding light on human trafficking in massage parlors

Traffickers use coercion and fraud to lure their victims into forced labor and sexual exploitation in illicit massage businesses. Here’s a look into how that human trafficking system works.

By Nicole L. Cvetnic / McClatchy

Miami Herald writer Xinjun Li contributed to this report.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politi ... 86429.html

Brad Paschal

[Marionumber1]

This may be just a coincidence, but it's pretty interesting that another Li Yang in Florida was part of a corruption scandal involving powerful Republicans. It's the Clint Curtis story that many people who followed election integrity back in 2004 and 2005 will probably remember (http://cavdef.org/w/index.php?title=Clint_Curtis):

Clint Curtis is a programmer, vote rigging whistleblower, politician, and election integrity activist. In the early 2000s, he worked as the lead programmer at Yang Enterprises (YEI), a Florida technology contractor with ties to GOP politician Tom Feeney. Curtis documented numerous legal violations and abuses at YEI, including illegal alien labor, Chinese espionage, and Feeney's commissioning of election rigging software. He soon left to work at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), one of YEI's clients, only to discover YEI was overbilling the agency. Curtis lost his job for blowing the whistle on YEI's activities, and the investigator of his allegations died suspiciously. Following the 2004 election, Curtis became concerned that election fraud was employed for Bush, and told his story to the public. Curtis became a consistent advocate for the cause of election integrity and incorporated the issue into several unsuccessful political campaigns.

Yang Enterprises was and is run by Li-Woan Yang, a committed Republican and GOP donor with a close relationship to Tom Feeney (who was Jeb Bush's unsuccessful running mate and later the Speaker of the Florida state house who threatened to give the 2000 electoral votes to Bush no matter what).

And these scandals are likely connected to human trafficking, as I explained in a RI thread here: http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=40703

[seemslikeadream]

yes I remember that ..thanks!...looking for a photo of Li-Woan Yang or her husband Dr. Tyng-Lin (Tim) Yang..so far can not find one...seems strange

do you remember a photo of GHWB with an Asian woman they both were wearing white bath robes..I can not find that one either ...it's the first thing I thought of

Lemme was the investigator from the Florida Inspector General's office at the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) to whom Clint Curtis had initially reported his allegations of wrongdoing by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) and Yang Enterprises, Inc. (YEI). Feeney, the former running-mate of Jeb Bush in his original run for governor of Florida, was the corporate counsel and registered lobbyist for YEI while he also served as Speaker of the Florida House. In 2002, Feeney ascended to the U.S. House of Representatives where he is now a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
Curtis reported in a sworn affidavit, released exclusively by The BRAD BLOG on December 6th, 2004, that Lemme had told him in June of 2003 that "he had tracked the corruption 'all the way to the top' and that the story would break in the next few weeks." Lemme's wife confirms in the police report that her husband had been "working a 'big' case".

Two weeks after meeting with Curtis, Raymond Camillo Lemme was found dead in a bathtub with his arm slashed twice with a razor blade near the left elbow in Room #132 of the Knights Inn motel in Valdosta, Georgia; a border-town some 80 miles from Tallahassee FL where Lemme lived and worked.
http://bradblog.com/?page_id=5479

ok so I just found this

Right to Rise, Jeb Bush's super-PAC, is getting hit with a record fine for accepting an illegal foreign contribution (of $1.3 million) from his brother's Chinese business associates

Election Watchdog Hits Jeb Bush’s Super-PAC With Massive Fine for Taking Money From Foreign Nationals

Neil Bush, Jeb’s brother, was caught asking a Chinese businessman for money.

NIHAL KRISHANMARCH 11, 2019 2:34 PM



Brian Cahn/ZUMA

The Federal Election Commission has hit Right to Rise USA, the super-PAC that backed Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential bid, with a record fine for accepting a seven-figure donation from a company owned by Chinese nationals who were in business with Bush’s brother, Neil, according to FEC documents obtained by Mother Jones. It is illegal for foreign nationals to be involved in making donations to political committees.

Neil Bush, who has extensive business dealings in China, solicited the $1.3 million contribution from American Pacific International Capital (APIC), an international investment holding company where Neil is a board member. Although the contribution to Jeb’s super-PAC came from the American arm of APIC, the company’s owners are Chinese, and Neil Bush initially solicited the money from two Chinese nationals—Gordon Tang, the chair of APIC, and Huaidan Chen, a board member. The FEC has fined APIC $550,000 and Right to Rise $390,000.

The total combined fine against Bush’s super-PAC and APIC, which has not previously been reported, is $940,000, the largest amount levied in a single case against anyone since the 2010 Citizens United ruling. The penalty is also the biggest fine that the FEC has ever handed down due to foreign national participation. “This is a big, big fine, one of the biggest fines in FEC history,” says Brendan Fischer from the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog.

The FEC began investigating the APIC donations after CLC filed a complaint with the commission. CLC has not yet received notification from the FEC regarding the result of that complaint and the impending fines on Right to Rise and APIC. Fischer’s comments are based on a characterization of the FEC settlement that Mother Jones provided him.

“This illegal $1.3 million is a direct result of Citizens United,” Fischer says, since before that 2010 Supreme Court decision, companies could not donate unlimited amounts of money to super-PACs.

FEC regulations state that a “foreign national shall not direct, dictate, control, or directly or indirectly participate in the decision-making process of any…corporation…with regard to…election-related activities.” This includes decisions about making a contribution. Because Neil Bush was in communication with foreign nationals at APIC to solicit a donation, the law was broken.

“This is a big, big fine, one of the biggest fines in FEC history. This illegal $1.3 million is a direct result of Citizens United.”
CLC filed the complaint after reporting from the Intercept in 2016 showed that APIC and its foreign owners had made the $1.3 million contribution to Bush’s super-PAC in order to help “friends.” In an interview with the Intercept at the time, APIC’s director of public relations, Victoria Yu, said the company engages in politics to “influence in some way good or bad policies” and to “create a better environment” for doing business. The Intercept reported that Wilson Chen, an American citizen and executive director of APIC, “compared APIC’s political donations to the Chinese tradition of gong cha or paying tribute to the emperor.”

The FEC’s ruling against Right to Rise and APIC brings to light new information on how that donation came about. According to a legally binding conciliation agreement that Right to Rise signed with the FEC, which was obtained by Mother Jones, Neil Bush first broached the topic of APIC making a contribution to his brother’s super-PAC during a conversation he had with Tang in Singapore during a business trip. Tang stated at the time that APIC might be interested in contributing if it could do so legally.

Bush then sent an email to Wilson Chen and Huaidan Chen on February 21, 2015, following up on his conversation with Tang about getting a donation. Bush wrote that Tang had “expressed interest in donating legally through APIC to my brother Jeb’s political action committee.” He also wrote that “[i]f Gordon wants to make a donation you ought to pass this by your legal counsel as well to be sure everything is done properly.” Neil attached to the email a copy of a Right to Rise legal memorandum written by the PAC’s lawyer, Charlie Spies, that outlined the rules on contributions from “Domestic Subsidiaries of Foreign Corporations to Federal Super PACs.”

On February 19, before this email exchange with Wilson and Huaidan, Neil called Spies asking how to legally solicit the contribution from Tang. Spies then sent him the same legal memorandum, but Bush did not follow its rules, as shown by the solicitation email he sent Wilson and Hauidan (a Chinese foreign national).

Spies told Mother Jones that “Right to Rise conciliated this matter to avoid costly litigation and appreciates the commission’s recognition of its extensive compliance efforts.”

Mark Irion, APIC’s spokesman, told Mother Jones that “APIC is agreeing to a very large fine and remains committed to complying with all campaign finance laws and regulations. You can read throughout the conciliation agreement their desire to do everything legally and properly but mistakes can be made even with the best of intentions. Their actions speak to their sense of taking responsibility.”

He added, “APIC did not want an ongoing investigation to burden its pending real estate transactions and made a cost of business decision to put this settlement behind.”

Neil Bush told Mother Jones through a spokesman: “I respect the decisions of both Right to Rise and APIC to enter into conciliation agreements with the FEC,” Bush wrote to Mother Jones. “I believed that my actions were both lawful and consistent with the legal advice that I sought. One hundred percent of the contributions I raised were from entities and American citizens who were legally eligible to contribute.”

But while the FEC clamped down on APIC and Right to Rise in this instance because the violation was recorded by Neil Bush in an email, other instances of foreign nationals funneling money to PACs may be harder to uncover. “Corporations being able to spend unlimited amounts of money in our elections opens the door to foreign influence,” Fischer says. “If the actors were a little more sophisticated, they could have avoided an FEC investigation. There’s every indication that this is the tip of the iceberg, that foreign money is coming into our elections through nonprofits and corporations, but without any detection.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... rdon-tang/

Everything to Know About the Spa Founder Selling Access to Trump
By Chas Danner

Cindy Yang and President Trump in a photo signed by Trump, which Yang posted on Facebook. Photo: Facebook/Screencap via The Miami Herald
The woman who founded the Florida spa where police allege Patriots owner Robert Kraft solicited prostitution appears to have also sold access to the president, according to investigations by the Miami Herald and Mother Jones. The reports not only raise another red flag about how political influence has been monetized during the Trump presidency, but provide new evidence of how Trump-branded properties have become magnets for corruption and grift — and may soon lead to new investigations into what may have been illegal campaign donations to Trump and the RNC.

Who Is Cindy Yang?

At the center of this developing story is Cindy (Li) Yang, a 45-year-old entrepreneur and naturalized U.S. citizen from China who started fundraising for Trump in 2017. Yang and her family members founded a chain of Asian day spas in Florida, mostly under the Tokyo Day Spa brand. One of the spas Yang founded but later sold was the Orchids of Asia spa in Jupiter, Florida, where police say they filmed billionaire Robert Kraft paying for oral sex in late January as part of a multi-agency law-enforcement operation targeting human trafficking at spas in the state. Ten Asian day spas were ultimately raided and shut down as a result of that investigation, but Orchids of Asia was the only one associated with Yang.


According to the Miami Herald, there is no indication that Yang was implicated in the sting. However, the Herald reports that many of the day spas she and her family have owned and operated, including the location which later became Orchids of Asia, at the time Yang still ran it, have earned reputations as so-called rub-and-tug parlors, where sexual services are sold to clients in addition to massage.

Yang and her family members have opened at least six day spas as well as a massage school and several nail salons — all in Palm Beach and Broward counties. “The family’s Tokyo Day Spa branches have attracted the attention of at least two local police agencies over allegations of prostitution, and are discussed online as places where men can pay for sexual extras,” the Herald reported on Friday. The publication dug through Yelp and websites aimed at would-be patrons of rub-and-tug businesses, and noted allegations from former employees and customers:

Online ads on obscure websites also raise flags about Yang’s businesses. In an ad written in Chinese recruiting masseuses, Yang stated that anyone over the age of 45 need not apply. Phone numbers associated with members of the Yang family are connected to various apparently old online advertisements for more explicit sex services.
Get unlimited access to Intelligencer and everything else New York. Learn More »
The Herald reported on Friday that Yang denied that she or her family members had done anything illegal, but did not respond when asked whether they were aware of allegations that sexual services were being sold at their businesses. She also said she wanted to avoid negative press ahead of her upcoming move — to Washington.


From massage to MAGA

If there is any evidence that Cindy Yang had an interest in politics before the 2016 presidential race, the Miami Herald couldn’t find it. She hadn’t voted in ten years, but then seemed to undergo some kind of political awakening. She made some small donations to Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign in 2015 and talked about starting a “new life” in a Facebook post from a GOP women’s event in 2016. But then, she started posting more and more about politics on social media as the general election played out. She also removed her name from the business records of the spas she founded, and had founded what the Herald characterized as a disorganized charity called the Overseas International Female Organization.

ADVERTISEMENT

Within a year of Trump’s election, Yang was deep in the MAGA muck. She had been to Trump’s inauguration, a fancy New York fundraiser, an elite lunch at Mar-a-Lago, and she had started fundraising for the president. She had also started amassing a large collection of photos of herself with Trump, Trump family members, Trump administration officials, Republican lawmakers, and conservative personalities.


Since 2017, Yang and family members have donated almost $60,000 to the Trump campaign and the Trump Victory super-PAC, and she has frequented Mar-a-Lago, where she recently took a selfie with the president during the club’s Super Bowl party. She’s also been to the White House, where she attended a meeting of Trump’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative in February 2018. She has apparently attended at least two other events hosted by the group in Washington, as well.

Yang’s Trumpmania may not have been all about MAGA, however, as she didn’t just obtain access, but has tried to profit from it.

Selling the presidential selfie in China

A little more than a year after Trump’s election, Yang and her husband started a consulting firm, GY US Investments, targeting Chinese businesses looking to expand their operations in the U.S. The company’s website marketed Yang’s connections to Trump, his administration, and his conservative allies. To prove that point, the site featured numerous photos of Yang posing with Trump, Trump family members, White House officials and various other Republicans and conservative personalities.


According to Mother Jones, “the overall message conveyed by the GY US Investments website seems clear: hire Yang’s company and she can get you close to Trump and his government — at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington.” The GY site, which went offline after the Herald story broke but can still be seen in archived form, claimed that the firm had arranged attendance and photo opportunities for clients at the White House’s “Asian New Year” celebration in 2018, had gotten “a number of guests” into the annual New Year’s Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago this year, and teased more opportunities to come:

The GY US Investments website lists upcoming events at Mar-a-Lago at which Yang’s clients presumably can mingle with Trump or members of his family. This includes something called the International Leaders Elite Forum, where Trump’s sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, will supposedly be the featured speaker. Attendees, the site says, will include “Chinese elites from various countries, including the US states, as well as elite leaders from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Europe and other countries and regions.” Another event for which Yang’s firm says it can provide access is Trump’s annual New Year’s celebration at Mar-a-Lago. Elsewhere on the website, the firm boasts that “GY Company arranged a number of guests to attend the 2019 New Year’s Eve dinner. All the guests took photos with” members of Trump’s family. This page displays photos of Chinese executives and a Chinese movie star with Donald Trump Jr., suggesting that these pics were arranged by the company, and also includes a photo of Yang with Elizabeth Trump Grau.
The first Trump event Yang may have sold access to was in late 2017. On Saturday, the Miami Herald reported that Yang had attended a fundraiser on December 7 at Cipriani New York, and was accompanied by a group of Chinese business executives. She said the foreigners were her “guests,” according to one of the attendees:


In the 11 days before the event, Yang gave $5,400 to Trump’s campaign and $23,500 to the Trump Victory political action committee, according to a Miami Herald analysis of federal political contributions. [Yang] also claimed to have arranged the presence of a large group of business people from mainland China.
Nearly 100 of the 400 or so guests at the New York fundraiser were Chinese, according to Chinese-language media reports at the time. Even Trump noted the disproportion at the event, according to the Herald:

The source who attended the party said the president joked that the Chinese guests got all the good seats and would be omnipresent at future events if his American friends in real estate didn’t start donating more. The source said admission started at $2,700, and photos with the president were offered for $10,000.
Ten days after the event, Yang and her husband registered GY US Investments as a company in Florida and began marketing her access.


Did Yang break the law?

It’s not yet clear. Since U.S. election law only allows American citizens and permanent residents to contribute money to a U.S. politician, foreigners can only attend political fundraisers if they do not pay their way in. If Yang paid for a foreign citizen’s ticket, but was reimbursed by them — thus acting as a conduit for foreign donations — that would be illegal.

Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York, commented on Saturday that a law-enforcement investigation may now be an inevitability. She explained that there seemed to be “a lot of potential criminal conduct” in the reports, and the next step, she said, was to find out how and why Yang had access, predicting that, “I see subpoenas in her future.”

Reached for comment about her businesses and Trump connections by the Miami Herald, Cindy Yang said she did not know the president personally or work for him, but has volunteered with the Trump campaign:


“I just come to some events. There’s nothing special,” Yang said. Although she has claimed online to be a member of Trump clubs, she told the Herald she does not in fact belong to any.
Is this a national security risk?

Sam Vinograd, who served on President Obama’s National Security Council, speculated on Saturday that it was very likely China, thanks to its counterintelligence strength, knew about Yang’s access, and may have even directed it. Another national security expert, Lawfare’s Susan Hennessey made a similar point.

On Sunday, Mother Jones reported that Yang was an officer in two groups with links to China’s government, though stressed there was no evidence to suggest she was involved in espionage. According to the report, an online profile of Yang said she held senior roles in Florida local branches of the (American) Chinese Association of Science and Technology and the Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China (CPPRC). Both organizations have numerous U.S. chapters, and don’t at all prove that Yang was some kind of government agent, but they are still organizations which are linked to China’s Communist Party, and at least one, the CPPRC, is meant to help promote Chinese influence. Mother Jones also notes that Yang was once invited to attend a ceremony welcoming three warships as they docked in Florida — an event which was also attended by China’s ambassador to the U.S. and consul general.


What about blackmail?

Another potential security risk revolves around sex work that may have been performed at Yang’s day spas, as well as their proximity to Trump’s southern White House — Mar-a-Lago. What if, as the Daily Beast’s David Rothkopf loudly worried on Saturday, Trump or members of his inner circle have been customers at any of the spas operated by Yang and her family. Billionaire Trump friend Robert Kraft allegedly was. And billionaire Trump backer John Childs allegedly paid for sexual services at a different Asian day spa caught up in the same sting.

You don’t have to be a spy novelist to imagine the blackmail opportunities such a situation could create. There are no indications that any other Trumpworld figures were spa clients, but no one should be surprised if Trump’s tabloid presidency gets somehow crazier, or sleazier.

Is anyone else trying to sell White House access in China?

Yang, of course, is only the latest specific example of the gold rush of influence seekers and peddlers who have tried to work their way into Trump’s orbit since he was elected president. In the half-exploded ethical minefield of the Trump administration, concerns over executives and foreigners using Trump family businesses to gain access and influence within the White House have been repeatedly justified. Just this past week, ProPublica reported that a Mar-a-Lago member was able to get Trump to forward his personal policy idea to the head of the Veterans Administration — hardly the first or last time that will happen before Trump leaves office.


When it comes to obtaining access to Trump events, Yang’s company has been just one of at least several options for interested parties in China. Last May, the Washington Post highlighted the rising number of well-off Chinese citizens who were attending Trump fundraisers. They reported that official-looking offer letters had made the rounds among wealthy businesspeople in China offering chances to meet Trump at a campaign fundraising event in Dallas for as much as $100,000. The Post even tracked down the source of that offer, and heard about tactics which seem somewhat similar to Yang’s:

In an interview with The Washington Post, a Beijing man who claims to be an organizer of the excursion to Dallas said he coordinated a previous U.S. trip, bringing members of the Chinese business elite to snap selfies and pose for photos at a swanky Manhattan fund-raiser headlined by Trump in December. As part of his promotional materials for the Dallas trip, the man circulated pictures of wealthy Chinese business leaders, including a businessman known as the country’s first owner of a Ferrari, standing shoulder to shoulder with Trump in formal wear and giving a thumbs-up. …

Sun’s invite claims that he and his associates have “prior experience participating in three Republican president dinners in 2017,” including the New York visit. The Post could not independently verify his involvement in any trips. In the interview, he said his Beijing-based company aims to raise the profile of Chinese entrepreneurs. The $100,000 per-person price tag includes airport pickup, lodging, meals and translator, the invitation says.
The RNC, in their response to the Post’s story, denied having any knowledge of the efforts to woo Chinese nationals and said they would not have endorsed them if they had. “We maintain strict compliance with the law and have a zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who attempts to take advantage of the system in order to attend our events,” an RNC spokeswoman said.


There have also been suspicions about presidency leveraging in China from someone with the closest possible ties to Trump. Jared Kushner was reportedly aggressively pursued by China’s government after Trump got elected, and his family business was caught, more than once, using his connection to Trump to attract investment in the country.

Foreign citizens can spend as much as they want at Trump properties. At a typically Trump-attended event like the New Year’s gala at Mar-a-Lago, the money just goes to Trump’s company, not his campaign or the GOP. Trump did not attend the New Year’s event at Mar-a-Lago this year, having decided to remain at the White House during his partial shutdown of the federal government. If he’d gone, he may have run into Huachu Tang, the owner of an electric car company in China, who later told Yahoo Finance that he’d made the trip from China with his wife in the hope of meeting Trump and raising the profile of his soon-to-be-public company. It’s not clear if Tang was a client of Yang’s firm or not. He said he had arranged the trip through a PR agency. Stood up by the president, Tang scored photos with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the president’s sister, instead.

Tang’s company, when asked by Yahoo, declined to reveal how much he had paid to attend the event. According to the Palm Beach Post, Mar-a-Lago raised its prices for the party this year, and a pair of nonmember guests could expect to pay the Trump Organization as much as $2,500 to attend. We don’t know who else was there, either. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics watchdog group has sued to gain access to Mar-a-Lago’s visitor logs, but so far to no avail.

This post has been updated throughout to reflect new information and context.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/ ... trump.html

Interesting @NewDay segment this a.m. about the Cindy Yang saga. As the @miamiherald reported, Yang squired a large group of Chinese nationals to a Trump fundraiser on 12/2/17. Tickets started at $2,700. If non-US citizens paid to attend, that’s illegal.

https://twitter.com/DanielSchulman

[Jerky]

I have always thought of Don Jr and Eric as the Uday and Qusay Hussein of American politics. I would not be surprised in the slightest to find out that they're deep into the sickest kinks available, up to and including the rape and murder of children "imported" from foreign lands for this precise purpose.

The Q-tards keep pushing the risible notion that Trump has been a champion fighting the good fight against human trafficking. And the narrative fundamentals behind both Qanon and Pizzagate were clearly dreamed up by the kind of people who spend a whole lot of time fantasizing about raping and murdering children in the most B-movie grindhouse "evil" scenarios their sick little minds can cook up.

Two standard conservative movement practices come to mind in relation to the above. These would be "projection" - i.e. accusing others of doing what YOU do - and "swiftboating" - wherein you attack your opponents strengths as though they were a weakness. For instance, Dubya (of all fucking people) attacking Senator John Kerry's Vietnam war record.

Putting two and two together here, we get the ultimate perverts accusing (mostly) innocent people of being murderous, pedophile Satan worshipers, and the political audience reacts to it as though it were kayfabe in professional wrestling... they KNOW deep down it's not true (and they might even suspect that it's all projection and swiftboating), but they don't fucking care. They're fully invested in the narrative.

And THAT'S what it means to live in a postmodern world. Postmodernists didn't lead to this or create it, they just accurately DESCRIBE it, which is why conservatives and right-wingers hate postmodernism so goddamn much.

YOPJ

[seemslikeadream]

The leaders of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees just formally asked the FBI to conduct a counterintelligence probe into Cindy Yang,


This is what Pelosi and Schumer are asking for in the investigation into Cindy Yang

56F9447C-C319-4A9C-AF9F-7DC1A26550CF.png