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

[MelissaB]

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 SchulmanMarch 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 Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach 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—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.

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.

More: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/a-florida-massage-parlor-owner-has-been-selling-chinese-execs-access-to-trump-at-mar-a-lago/

[CentralMass]

1. I wonder if there are republican pols caught up in this..

[47of74]

2. Yep. And bears cop squats behind sticks to take dumps.

[DirtEdonE]

3. The entire gop is caught up in this

They've all been tainted by foreign money.

trump did to the gop what pootin did to trump.

[duforsure]

19. I agree totally

Between trump and putin they have been corrupted and regret it now as more see the writing on the wall, they'll be exposed, and do time.

[SMoss]

61. I disagree

Putain bought GOP leaders like McConnell long before tRump came along. The libertarian agenda hidden under the GOP cover is to get to an oligarchy government not unlike Russia.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. Matt Gaetz, recently of witness-tampering fame, is pals with Li Yang, photo-ed with her. . . . nt

[Leghorn21]

4. More from link:

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.


OH MY, I’m so looking forward to our intrepid sleuths, both professional and citizen, uncovering more details on this cadre of influence peddlers and, quite possibly, sex traffickers

[volstork]

9. This is likely something Turtle is embroiled in as well,

considering his Chinese wife and her family's long history of corruption and fraud.

When all of this bursts open, it will be the largest and most far-reaching scandal in the history of this country, and possibly in the world.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. Simply because both are "Chinese"? I know what -ism that is. . . . nt

[volstork]

40. The point is

that Yang and her husband are extremely powerful in China, as is Chao and her family. It has nothing to do with ethnicity and everything to do with access to the echelons of power in their nation of origin. The same could be said if both Yang and Chao were from similarly powerful and corrupt families in, for example, the UK or France and named Butler or Dubois.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

43. Maybe. Anyways, thanks for expanding the point. . . . nt

[True Blue American]

71. No, because Chao

Is friends with Yang!

[janterry]

29. Perhaps she is Chinese-American?

n/t

[EricMaundry]

5. My guess is she's working for Chinese intelligence

Teenage sex being the way to gain access to Donny.

[JDC]

6. Jesus H. "Compromised" doesn't even scratch the surface w this president.

[magicarpet]

7. You massage my wallet,..

... I will massage your crotch,... oops,.. I didn't mean crotch,.. I meant I will massage your wallet too.

How is your libido doing,.. oops I meant your investments,.. how are your investments doing ?

[True Blue American]

10. And now Trump has been granted

Access to Massage Parlors in China. How can the Trumps possibly hope to get away with all this corruption?

We have to clean out the Senate.

[magicarpet]

14. Rub, tug, and grab,...

... the trDump economic policy and business plan.

[jmbar2]

31. Must consult first with Madame Yank

[SergeStorms]

58. This would ONLY matter...

if a Democrat was involved with this. Since it's republicans...no biggie!

Can you imagine if a Democratic president had done 1% of the bullshit Trump has done?

[keithbvadu2]

15. Investments are up.

(sarcasm thingie goes here)

[magicarpet]

18. trDump investment report,...

Bonds are flaccid,..
Stocks are erect,..
Corruption is off the charts and steadily rising. Grab all the money you can before you get arrested.

[True Blue American]

25. I was just wondering!:)

[PatSeg]

8. I'm running out of shocked exclamations

and I'm wearing out my exclamation key. I'm afraid to ask, "What else could possibly happen?"

[True Blue American]

11. I am so depressed

Last edited Sat Mar 9, 2019, 11:26 AM - Edit history (1)

It is actually making me listless, depressed and literally sick.

Eery day we wake up to more, then have a Judge like Ellis.

[Scarsdale]

37. I hear you.

I wake up, wondering if we are at war yet. The gop has enabled the most corrupt, stupid, self-aggrandizing moron in the history of this country. Yet, they will back him to the bitter end. In the budget coming out Monday, there is a $100 million grant for Ivanka, to "further the business ambitions of women worldwide" Is this massage madam one of those businesses I wonder?Wanna bet Chinese women get the most help? (After Ivanka, of course) This money will be spent just like the tRump "charity " money, on personal items and lawyers.

[True Blue American]

44. Just gets worse and worse.

Massage Parlors in China. Quatar paying off Kushner debt. Setting up nuclear sites in Saudi. The same ones who killed 3000 of out own.

Russia, cheating,stealing. Tax fraud. Slush fund in Inauguration.The list is never ending.

[Scarsdale]

46. They do not even try

to hide the corruption anymore. The gop will eventually pay for their backing of this crime family. The WH will never be the same, after the gop has exposed the fact that a republican president can bend all the rules, and still have their support. tRump is not even intelligent. He is a large, orange, doughy, low-life. I am ashamed the world thinks this country has sunk so low as to have this clown as the "leader".

[True Blue American]

49. So am I

Thus the depression. I have lived through a lot, but when I think of those who died to protect our Country, our Flag to watch that traitor hug it makes me physically ill.

I am too old for this shameful period.

[Grasswire2]

50. All I can say is to quote Paul Wellstone. "Stand up! Keep fighting!

Anyone with a keyboard and internet access can fight back by sharing information to contacts and the general public.

Anyone can join the ACLU for the price of a couple of coffee drinks. Lending your voice to the cause of liberty magnifies their message/

Anyone can support our free, watchdog press.

Don't let it get you down. We -- even we seniors -- have a lot to give.

[True Blue American]

53. I may be marching

In the streets if something does not give. Still fire in this furnace!

[GusBob]

12. Shut her down and ship her out

Bye bye Peking Rose you pimp

[PeeJ52]

13. It doesn't appear that the MSM is going to pick up on this story.

It looks like it will die at Mother Jones, The NY Post, and the Miami Herald. Sure seems like an interesting story to me that another alleged human trafficker is selling access to the pResident of the US and other prominent members of the GOP. Isn't that pay to play?

[keithbvadu2]

16. Yet Donald never saw those women with tape over their mouths.

"another alleged human trafficker"

Yet Donald never saw those women with tape over their mouths.

[True Blue American]

62. Nope

CNN is on the job! Pictures of Yang next to Trump watching the Super Bowl

[SCVDem]

17. I have faith that David Corn

will get on Lawrence and enlighten us.

At the least this is influence peddling and perhaps treason on the other side.

Deliver us from this evil!

[Leghorn21]

21. Hey, Lawrence's great producer Kyle has posted the article - 144 responses in one hour - !!!

Mother Jones reports that that Florida
massage parlor owner has been selling
Chinese executives access to Trump and
his family at Mar-a-Lago. And a website
for the business suggests she has had
some success in doing so.

Link to tweet

Let’s have at least one article a day on this AND the Epstein/Acosta abomination

Bring it on, Florida

[lilactime]

20. Thank you, David Corn.

[Mrs. Overall]

22. David Corn--the man who broke the story on the Steele Dossier in Oct. 2016, but no one else in media

took it seriously.

K & R

[Hugin]

24. This is YUUUGE!

But, nothing will happen.

Boys will be boys.

Nothingburder.



Kind of explains the behavior of several Republican politicians, though.

Can you imagine the shitstorm, if even a wiff of something like this had ever even emerged about any Democratic politician.

[PeeJ52]

28. Just imagine if it was a ring of underage sex slaves under a pizza shop with no basement...

It would get plenty of air play then, I tell ya...

[Hugin]

32. No kidding!

It might even motivate some overarmed incels to take private vigilante action.

Oy.

[Scarsdale]

39. But, but -

tRump has NEVER shamed the country by wearing a tan suit! Jeez, him in a tan suit would look like a Mac truck. He is porky, shapeless and gross.

[DeminPennswoods]

27. Honestly, you could not make this stuff up

if you tried.

[not fooled]

42. Yeah

if you had told me five years ago any of this stuff, I would have thought it came from a rejected movie script or novel.

Truth stranger than fiction.

[rocktivity]

30. And exactly WHEN she sell off her spas?

Has they started getting too "dis-respectable" for her?


rocktivity

[Lars39]

33. And did she sell them to family members?

[Leghorn21]

52. Apparently, yes

Yang told The Miami Herald that she long ago sold Orchids of Asia Day Spa. But her family still owns several spas in Florida, including some with the name Tokyo Day Spas – which the publication said has a reputation for offering sexual services.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2189303/china-born-cindy-li-yang-founder-florida-spa-linked

I’ve seen no particulars on exactly who, though

Lord, the woman who owns the joint who got busted, man does she look - bad.

There’s no fkn winners here, eh. Cheeze - really sad deal

[Leghorn21]

51. "Long ago" according to this link...but I think I read she sold it in 2013...

Yang told The Miami Herald that she long ago sold Orchids of Asia Day Spa. But her family still owns several spas in Florida, including some with the name Tokyo Day Spas – which the publication said has a reputation for offering sexual services

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2189303/china-born-cindy-li-yang-founder-florida-spa-linked

[Vogon_Glory]

34. I Am Closing My Eyes And Trying To Imagine What The Republicans'

reaction would have been had Bill Clinton been involved in similar scandals. At the very least they would have foregone impeachment in favor of publicly burning him at the stake.

When it comes to tolerating corruption, today’s Republican Party reminds me of the Book of Matthew Chapter 23, verse 24: “They strain out a gnat, yet swallow a camel.”

[dalton99a]

36. +1

[True Blue American]

54. No log in that eye

A whole blanking tree!

[Vogon_Glory]

56. And not just a tree

A sequoia!

[True Blue American]

57. I was actually thinking that.:)

[dlk]

35. More Trump Criminality to be Investigated by Congress

It looks like Trump is up to his eyeballs in a mountain of criminality and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface. I wonder if there is an Epstein connection with the Chinese trafficker. This gets more depraved and disgusting by the day.

[True Blue American]

45. Joy is doing a good job of exposing this morning

And there will be a Special on MSNBC tonight called,” Are You Lstening?” At 9.

DVr being set so I can review.

[True Blue American]

68. They just released the Epstein

Papers. A 3 Judge panel did that.

[NoMoreRepugs]

38. I can't believe tRumpy didn't seize on the opportunity

to set up a stand and charge for selfies with him at the New Years party.

[Scarsdale]

41. This explains why

he did not want visitor logs kept at that whorehouse in Florida. Such wealthy, low life people are members.

[True Blue American]

55. CNN just showed

Trump with Yang. I would call her Madame but that would be too much.

[lindysalsagal]

47. I think I have a new favorite frump story!

“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.)

[Initech]

48. No wonder he loves Foxconn so much!

[stuffmatters]

59. Recently Trumps in China got branding rights for Massage Parlors, Escort Services & Spas

Just connecting some more dots here between Trumps' international business plans, sex trafficking, & Yang.

[True Blue American]

63. Can you imagine

A President of the United States investing in Massage Parlors? Probably a good share of his money has come from them over the years!

We already know Casinos are controlled by the mob.

[stuffmatters]

66. He had the Trump Escort Service in NYC & has been accused of child rape w Epstein & pays for sex

Also his relentless, salacious obsession with sex trafficking & all his own accusations for employing, swindling vulnerable workers.

The Kraft Massage Parlor was under surveillance for sex trafficing esp underage captives. And nothing says this was not the nature of these business when this new Trump bestie owned it.

Then recently Trump Org has gotten branding rights to Trump Escort Services, Spas, Massage Parlors in China.

Cindy Yang appears to not just be using her Trump connex to make money from introducing Chinese business people to Trump.
It appears that Trump has found a mentor to mentor his intended sex for money empire in China.

Yeah, Trump is deep with the mob(ex.American& Russian) & always has been. This Kraft/Yang connex takes his filth to a new dimension. Using his office to gain Trump branding rights in China money for sex empire where the workers could be both underage and captive.

This is the moral profile of Donald J Trump. Yes, truly unthinkable, but so obviously true IMHO

[True Blue American]

67. Thanks for that. You can include

Mitch and Elaine Chao in that. Elaine is friends with Yang and Mitch made his money from Elaine’s family. Womder why his kids will not speak to him?

This putrid mess is going to explode all over, we shall see if William Barr covers this up like he did Iran/ Contra.

[stuffmatters]

69. Great dot connex there with McChaos;definitely Barr was brought in for all their coverups/pardons

[True Blue American]

70. Do you think Barr will

Ruin his reputation to go down with this putrid mess, or do you think he will stand up?

No matter, this will be exposed one way or the other.

Mitch and Republicans are panicking, going nuclear to get their Judges in. It will take generations to clean this up,if we can.

[stuffmatters]

72. I suspect Barr will do the job he was brought in to do: Iran Contra 2.0

Yes, so much damage to our democracy in just 2 years so far. Barr doesn't strike me as any different from all these other career Repug hardliners/wingers (n.b Kavanaugh, Gorsuch) who Trump & McConnell have installed at the top posts in our justice system for self protection.

[True Blue American]

73. I do wish I could disagree

But the whole Republican party is corrupt to the core.

Thank goodness we are keeping Sherrod Brown. The only bright spot. We dumped DeWine for him but like a bad penny he keeps returning.

I would like for Brown to run for Governor. He made great strides when he was our AG.

[stuffmatters]

74. Brown has long been my favorite senator, consistently,reliably correct about everything.

[Solly Mack]

60. K&R

[Vinca]

64. And the first thing I heard this morning when I turned on CNN was Rep. Omar, blah, blah, blah.

I don't get it. Don could be running a brothel in the White House and it seems no one would care.

[Ilsa]

65. I bet she's a SPY. Arrest her or deport her.

Seize her assets.