New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged on Monday with soliciting prostitution in Florida after hidden cameras allegedly showed him paying for sex inside a massage parlor.
Kraft is one of 25 people charged with misdemeanors, State’s Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg said at a press conference. Kraft, 77, is charged with two counts of of soliciting a person to commit prostitution and was issued a summons to appear in court in April. A low-level arrest warrant was also issued for Kraft, who does not reside in Florida. (A spokesperson for Kraft previously denied he committed any “illegal activity.”)
Police witnessed Kraft inside the “Orchids of Asia” massage parlor in Jupiter, Florida on two separate occasions, thanks to a “sneak and peek” warrant that allowed them to plant recording devices. In one instance, cameras recorded a woman hugging Kraft before he took off all his clothing and “laid face up on the massage table,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
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The woman “hugged him again” and began “manipulating [his] penis and testicles” with her hands, police said. Then the woman put “her head down by his penis” for “several minutes” before she “wiped Kraft in the area of his genitals with a white towel.” After she helped him get dressed and hugged him again, he slipped her two bills, one of them $100.
The encounter lasted approximately 10 minutes.
In another encounter, prosecutors allege, Kraft arrived at the spa in a blue Bentley, dressed casually in a dark shirt, blue baseball cap, and blue shorts. Once inside the room, Kraft allegedly “turned over onto his back” before “the lights in the room go out,” though a hand can be seen giving him a handjob. Two minutes later, the video shows a woman “wiping Kraft’s penis with a white towel.”
One of the alleged visits occurred on Jan. 20, hours before the Patriots defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game in Missouri.
The billionaire and the dozens of other alleged johns were snared in a law enforcement operation that shuttered 10 massage parlors across central Florida. The misdemeanors carry a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.
“I [can] assure you our office treats everyone the same, whether you have a lot of money or [you're] indigent” Aronberg said. “This is not about lonely old men.”
Authorities say women working at the parlors were little more than sex slaves to owners, though law enforcement has not charged anybody for human trafficking.
“There’s no allegation that any defendant engaged in human trafficking,” Aronberg said.
The charges against Kraft stem from an investigation into the spa that began in October 2018. Over 100 men have been identified in the sting operation, including John Havens, the former chief operation officer for Citigroup. Police also arrested the spa’s owner, Hua Zhang, and its manager, Lei Wang. The women working at the spa, many of them from China, lived in squalid conditions inside and were not allowed to leave, authorities allege.
“This is not about lonely old men and victimless crimes, this is about forcing women into our country for forced labor and sex,” Aronberg said.
