MIAMI (AFP) – Robert Kraft, billionaire owner of the reigning NFL Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, was charged Friday with paying for sex after a raid on a massage parlor in Florida, police said.
Police in Jupiter, Florida, say they have video evidence of the 77-year-old tycoon, a friend of President Donald Trump, paying for and participating in a sex act as part of their investigation into an illegal massage parlor operation.
Kraft, whose club recently beat the Los Angeles Rams for its third title in five seasons, is among 25 men charged with solicitation, said police chief Daniel Kerr, adding that video evidence had been collected in raids made over recent days.
“We’re as deeply stunned as anyone else,” Kerr added.
A spokesperson for Kraft denied that the billionaire had “engaged in any illegal activity” but declined to comment further.
Kraft has not yet been arrested on the two misdemeanor charges for each of his alleged visits to the Orchids of Asia day spa.
The contrast was stark, with one of America’s richest moguls frequenting a seedy massage parlor where desperate women, some from China, were forced to reside in dire circumstances, averaging up to eight clients a day, according to police.
”Victims are recruited. They’re brought in,” Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey said. ”They’re answering ads but they think they’re legitimate. And when they get there, it’s not.
