New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Charged with Soliciting Prostitution in Human Trafficking Probe

The owner of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, Robert Kraft, is being criminally charged with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Florida, where surveillance video showed him receiving sexual services, police said Friday.

The 77-year-old billionaire Kraft is one of more than two dozen people being charged in a police sting in Florida as part of a probe of human trafficking, authorities in Jupiter, Fla. said.

“He is one of the individuals. That would be Mr. Robert Kraft,” a top police official said at a press conference.

“He is being charged with the same offense as the others, and that is soliciting another to commit prostitution,” the official said.

“We’re as equally stunned as anyone else,” the official said, referring to Kraft’s alleged crime, which is a misdemeanor.

Kraft is a friend of President Donald Trump, who last month noted that he had signed four bills to support efforts to eradicate human traffickers, whom the president said committed “heinous crimes.” Kraft is not accused of or charged with being involved in human trafficking.

Kraft, who is worth an estimated $6.6 billion, was not in custody, but an arrest warrant will be issued for him charging him with two counts of soliciting.

A local news site, citing police, said that Kraft is accused of soliciting prostitution at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Fla., where an investigation had found women were being held there in “sexual servitude.” Many of the woman at the spa were from China, and were not allowed to leave the premises, police said, according to the TCPalm.com news site.

Kraft visited the spa twice after being driven there, cops said and seemed to be a “regular.”

Average fees for sexual services at the spa range from $59 for a half-hour to $79 for an hour, police said.

A spokesman for Kraft said,  “We categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity. Because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting further.”

Police said evidence in the cases came from witnesses and also from body cameras worn by officers.
Cops did not say when Kraft visited the spa.

Kraft is chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group, a private holding company that owns a variety of businesses, including the Patriots, which he bought in 1994, a a paper-manufacturing conglomerate.

Kraft earlier this month celebrated his team’s record-tying sixth Super Bowl victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
Forbes last year estimated that the Patriots were worth $3.8 billion, making them the second-most valuable NFL franchise, after the Dallas Cowboys.

– CNBC