Cindy Yang and Donald Trump
The founder of a Florida massage-parlor chain recruited Chinese business executives to attend a fundraiser for Donald Trump in New York City near the end of 2017, according to a report yesterday at the Miami Herald. Meanwhile, NBC Sports reports that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft probably is not the best-known person involved with the prostitution investigation that originated at one of the parlors Li "Cindy" Yang started. From the NBC Sports report:Adam Schefter said on ESPN that Kraft isn’t the most famous person — there’s someone else whose name hasn’t surfaced yet who’s better known than Kraft.
“I’m also told that Robert Kraft is not the biggest name involved down there in South Florida,” Schefter said.
There’s no word on who the biggest name is, and it’s unclear why the authorities in Florida would name Kraft publicly but not name this bigger name. But it appears that this story is going to get significant traction, and not go away quietly as Kraft would surely prefer.
As photos continue to surface of Yang with Republican personalities and political figures, evidence mounts that she is a significant figure in the party's fund-raising circles. Reports the Miami Herald:
A Chinese-American massage-parlor entrepreneur arranged for a group of Chinese business executives to attend a paid fundraiser for President Donald Trump in New York City at the end of 2017, according to a source who was present at the event.
Cindy Yang, whose family owns a chain of South Florida day spas where prostitution is said to have taken place, also runs a Florida-based consulting business called GY US Investments that promises to introduce Chinese investors into the president’s orbit.
Yang was present at the Dec. 2, 2017, fundraiser, held at Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan, according to a photograph that circulated in Chinese-language media at the time. The source, who asked for anonymity to discuss the private fundraiser, said Yang identified herself as an official at the National Committee of Asian American Republicans, a Washington, D.C.-based political action committee founded in the summer of 2016. . . .
Reports in Chinese-language media said nearly 100 Chinese people attended the New York fundraiser in December 2017, out of roughly 400 total guests. The event was hosted by the Republican National Committee. Officials at Trump Victory and the RNC did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.
Could this point to more unlawful activity connected to Trump? The answer is yes:
Foreign visitors may attend fundraisers as long as they don’t pay their own entry. But only citizens and permanent residents are allowed to donate to U.S. political campaigns. It would be illegal for foreign nationals to reimburse a U.S. citizen for paying their way into a fundraiser. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has been examining whether money from abroad influenced the 2016 election. There is no evidence that Yang or her businesses are part of that investigation. . . .
Since the New York event, Yang has advertised her ability to introduce Chinese investors to the president, his family and his advisers.
On the Chinese-language website for GY US Investments, Yang claimed to be hosting a “conference for international leadership” at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private resort in Palm Beach, on March 30. The guest speaker is advertised as Elizabeth Trump Grau, the president’s sister. Trump Grau could not be reached.
“It is the first time for Chinese to play the leading role [at] Mar-a-Lago,” the website claimed.
How did Yang come to rise in GOP circles? That is not fully clear, although a Saturday article at Mother Jones provides considerable insight:
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.)
Yang seems to reside in a world very different from the one she occupied previously. Reports the Herald:
Yang’s consulting business and new-found political relevance were a far cry from her previous main line of work: Running a chain of Asian day spas in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
Online commenters on adult-themed and other websites have stated that spas owned by Yang and her family — which operate under the brand name Tokyo Day Spas — have offered sex. Allegations of prostitution at the spas have been reported to at least two local police agencies in South Florida, according to law enforcement records obtained by the Herald, although no charges appear to have been brought against Yang or the spas as a result of those tips.
Here are just a few photos that have surfaced since Friday of Cindy Yang with Republican luminaries:
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Yang
Donald Trump Jr. and Yang
Sarah Palin and Yang