Mr. Nelson, among many others, favors keeping criminals out of a business by making it illegal. Because that worked so well with drugs, prostitution and gambling. "Human trafficking is serious and pervasive. " is an indictment of the current system, not an argument for keeping it.
I don't agree with libertarians often, but this time they're right.
Those looking for an insider's view should check out "The Sex Myth: Why Everything We're Told Is Wrong" and "Sex, Lies & Statistics", both by Brooke Magnanti.
5
Maybe there were other places to go when the Secretary of Labor and his client Epstein were doing their thing.
7
Why do we too often assume that the 'wealthiest' among us have higher moral standards than the 'poorest' of us? Quite simply, because the media tells us so! Even a Mastercard can never purchase true human values unless it benefits those less fortunate.
11
Sex is a basic need after food and shelter and when you're wealthy and lack principles you buy it just as you do everything else.
2
Given the implications this should not be a misdemeanor but a different charge.
5
For those of you wondering why a man with Robert Kraft’s resources and others of his ilk frequented “Asian Orchids,” it is simple.
“Yellow fever.”
Their vulnerability made these women intoxicating.
Kraft did not avail himself of freelancers because he would have been vulnerable to blackmail from potential grifters and their associates.
I do wonder, though, why the police spent so much time videotaping the evidence. Someone was watching—and probably enjoying themselves. They could have shut the place down quickly and provided immediate succor to these women in bondage.
“Asian Orchids” did not come across as seedy to me, judging by the photos. It looked like any other massage parlor in any strip mall in any American city. These parlors have become mainstream.
Clients hail “from all walks of life: There’s rich and poor, there’s young and old.” Politicians and lawmakers need to take heed of this demographic reality and formulate adequate social and legislative responses.
What is the point of criminalizing these men, many of whom are husbands and fathers and brothers?
The real criminals are the traffickers who dehumanize women for profit.
12
Good write, Pat and Ken. I thought there is an established trans national industry over there flying $20k service girls to wealthy clients. Thought Mr Kraft was a billionaire?
He now has to hire an expensive legal eagle to try and keep his name clean.
Next time maybe dial the flying service, Robert.
Tut tut. We all have our troubles.
3
Considering what has and what could be written about the rich and shameless along Florida's Gold Coast...dipping a wick into a professional well is hardly worth a mention - were it not a rich and prominent white-color wick being dipped into a seedy blue-color well.
"...why a man worth an estimated $6.6 billion would risk his reputation so recklessly on a $79-an-hour massage."
The joke, is no joke...men do only have enough blood to supply one head at a time.
5
Lots of libertarians posting!
Human trafficking is serious and pervasive.
The police and prosecutors in Florida were after traffickers.
Sorry, but it is simply a male fantasy that prostitutes are willing free agents.
52
A great article with wonderful vivid descriptions.
I should know - for the past two years - as an Astros fan.
The Astros and the Nats share their spring camp in a nearby town - with Mar a Lago just a side excursion.
On one occasion - we went to the Breakers - where valet parking is $50 unless you buy something - anything like even a NYT - then it's free.
But there is no parking of your own, period.
We wandered in the bar which is simply outstanding. But dressed for an Astros game - we felt out of place.
Wandering around the grounds - you could see the wealth.
Not one child was minded by his or her mother - they were all around but maids easily outnumbered them.
Wanting to catch sun and enjoy the scene - I walked in the little store to ask for coffee.
For two of us - a total of $5 - that's less than SixBucks.
It was priceless - and they accepted my Mastercard.
10
"No one in this case was arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking, forced labor, compelling prostitution, or any other charge that implies force, fraud, or coercion in the arrangement. There is no evidence in initial complaints, the arrest affidavits, the arrest warrants, or subsequent court documents that any of those arrested were using force or deception at the massage businesses. On the warrants, the victim is listed as the State of Florida."
http://reason.com/blog/2019/02/28/homeland-security-spied-on-chinese-women
5
About why did he go to a "cheap strip mall massage joint": The whole point is to go someplace dirty and nasty. For men of a certain age and mind set, sex should always be dirty and one person dominating another. It's no fun otherwise.
15
Petty billionaires with paltry souls. Writing a check under the photographer's eye is obviously a much much more generous act than paying a prostitute the equivalent of 0.0001 USD cent. Needless to say, only a force prostitute would have any sexual relation with those guys.
9
This article is disgusting in its disdain for the victims. To use the terms "seedy" and "tawrdry" and "sleezy" in a quote is to further denigrate the women victims. One can only conclude that if they had been "high class" white calls girls it would have been much "classier." Kraft is knocked for being 'dumb' and getting caught in a "seedy" establishment not for his foul exploitative conduct that is more skin to rape given the near bondage of the undocumented women. The reporters and the NYT should be ashamed. This is more telling of their class contempt.
28
@AR, the article calls the environment by those adjectives, and they fit. It would be no compliment to the poor women trapped there to call the surroundings very nice and clean. They aren't, from any description I have heard. Yes, I am sure that "high class" expensive call girls, not all of whom are white, do have nicer places to endeavor to please their purchasers or renters of their bodies. But that's not because a reporter says so, it's because they have more money. It surprises me that people have recommended a rebuke so based in a misreading as yours is.
8
Kraft is a friend of Trump. He prostituted himself before he visited prostitutes. He won't be punished, of course.
24
Note to others of Kraft's ilk - stick to pricey call girls, you're much less likely to to be - snagged...
1
@Brandy Danu I think the risk is part of the thrill for these guys.
4
It's way way for a person in a gilded cage to feel human. Who wants a high priced escort when you can have contact with an actual person. (As long as you ignore the trafficking part) There is a need for common human touch that gets lost in entitled life. It's why so many of the wealthy end up with the maids housekeepers and nannies. They are trying to reclaim their humanity.
@Doug S, if he wanted a "person," he'd want someone who could talk with him, whose feelings would matter just an atom's worth, whose life of being used in squalor would displease rather than attracting him. Empathize a moment with the woman in his embrace and consider if it's her humanity he's thinking of.
16
The difference between the zillionaires and us is that they can better hide their bad behavior-- whether prostitution, child and wife abuse and white collar crime and buy or lawyer their way out of it.
9
Slavery is evil. Like a murderer, the slaver steals the life of the victim; unlike a murderer, the slaver forces the victim to suffer until the slaver is done with her. Slaves live only for the dream of someday being free.
No person that participates in the enslavement of another should enjoy the respect of civilized society.
Had he hired an independent prostitute, I would have no issues with him. But he didn't. I don't care about Mr. Kraft's psychological issues. Lock him up.
28
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
61
I see a great optic for Kraft if he is benevolent as they say. How about donating a sizable chunk of his change to fight the scrounge of human trafficking. There are mighty fine folks and organizations that are dedicated to wiping out this horrible industry.
21
Someone's comment: ""For Robert Kraft to go in a place like this, for 69 or 79 bucks and give her a $100 tip — it just blows me away.""
What amazes me is that anyone would believe that a trafficked woman would be allowed to keep that tip, if indeed it was actually handed to her and not to her pimp. Of course the managers of such establishments are pimps. Several European countries have made sex work legal but at the same time they have enacted strong laws to severely punish pimping. I'm totally in favor of this.
Pimps are people, sometimes whole organizations that moves those trafficked victims every few weeks so as to make it harder for them to escape. Pimping means living of the proceeds of prostitution of women and men and sometimes even children/teens (as the other recent case in Florida of an influential man having organized an interstate and even international ring of trafficked girls, a man who managed to be let off scot free until now 10 years later)
Victims of pimps have been trafficked with originally false pretense and kept in bondage/slavery with threats to their families back home and sometimes an initial forced drug taking. In addition local girls (yes girls) are groomed to become prostitutes with false pretenses and then, like the trafficked victims, by threats to their families and fear/terror so as to take all their earnings from them and beating them if they don't bring in enough at the end of the day.
Pease think of the victims.
30
Legalizing prostitution is not the answer. Women and girls are still going to be forced into prostitution, whether they're brought here from another country, or they're young american girls that get into a relationship with the wrong guy, or suffer from an addiction they can't afford.
These women aren't afraid of being arrested because they don't want to spend a night in jail. They're afraid because their pimp is going to beat the snot out of them. The pimp will pay the bail and the fines, and put that girl right back out on the street to pay that money back.
So why don't we prosecute the pimps? Because the girls are terrified and won't cooperate. If one of them cooperated and testified, and then we failed to convict, that girl is as good as dead. Because while the State will make all the promises in the world to protect them, once the case is closed, they are on their own, with no money and no family or friends to help them.
39
With the visibility/availability of attractive entrepreneurial (non-trafficed) escorts in Palm Beach, the real embarrassment is that billionaires like Robert Kraft are so intent on paying the absolute minimum for their commercial sex, that they are happy to perpetuate modern day slavery. We will not find the solution to the problems associated with prostitution by looking through the lens of a billionaire's playground. Nonetheless, if these individuals do not have the resources to find socially & legally acceptable means to satisfy their sexual impulses, what can we expect from the bottom 99.99% of society?
4
Accepting the fact that money + tawdry sex create a toxic brew that is impossible to look away from, why stop there? And oh the hypocrisy of all the pompous and righteous who don't bother to see the "slavery" all around us. When dining out, how many wonder whether all the cooks, dishwashers and servers are paid a reasonable and legal wage and treated fairly? How many question the state of employment at the local country club? Who questions a hotel about the staff employed there?
Mr. Kraft may have paid $79, but what about that $15 price fix special at the local eatery?
11
@srulik
I appreciate that you're well meaning but, please educate yourself about the difference between wage exploitation and slavery (both are objectionable but they are different. )
The trafficked women (and girls and boys) forced into sex slavery are kept there against their will, as well as men and women forced into slave manufacturing and domestic and other work (for ex. on shrimp boats etc).
There are a couple of websites you can consult about slavery and its tragic rise .... You'll be more effective if you have more knowledge.
If you think the $15 flat price at your local eatery is the result of slavery,please look into it and alert the authorities. I sure would.
HOWEVER having worked in the restaurant business myself I can assure you that it's very possible to offer a $15 meal and still pay your workers (or yourself if you're a working owner ) at least the legal minimum wage and still make a profit for the restaurant.
Please inform yourself on the wholesale price of food, or even the retail prices (a trip to your nearest big grocery store might be useful)
7
@srulik, saying that vice or crime is omnipresent is not a reason to accept vice and crime, and especially not the most degrading kind, which invades human being's bodies themselves in often coerced acts of sex and brutality. Whataboutism is bad enough when it attempts to excuse less heinous acts than these. But unforgivable here.
3
@srulik
I'm all for higher wages and better benefits for service workers. But I'm not sure I would compare waiting tables to forced prostitution.
9
I agree that the headline has downplayed the real story: human trafficking.
This level of entitlement and greed in the power of so-called "leaders" should jolt the electorate awake to the culture of many of the revered business and political elite. This is not a matter of extramarital affairs, this is treating young women like beasts of burden. Human rights were trampled, besides the breaking of the law.
I fear that the former is no longer of great concern to the American public.
19
Because we are still essentially a Puritan nation, very few people are willing to discuss the obvious: he liked and wanted the kind of sex he was paying for. The idea that degrading sex is beneath those with money denies the reality of the addiction, which has nothing to do with social position.
This “incident” may be about affluence creating blindness to consequences on some level, but it’s also about powerful desire.
Just because he can afford “anyone” to satisfy sexual urges does not mean that he wanted “anyone”.
The squalid room housing the woman who is enslaved is one of the basic facts of the sexual life of wealthy American men since this country was founded. Get over your shock, and free the women.
13
@Michael c
I agree with you. I suspect that the "customer" enjoyed the fact that the sex was not actually consensual.
Several European countries have legalized sex work but have enacted very tough laws to punish pimps (which the organization our billionaire patronized was).
So yes, "free the women" and in a number of cases the men, oh and how could we forget the children :-( ...and reallly really punish the pimps/traffickers and those johns that knowingly patronize them.
9
I don't get the angle on this story at all.
Jupiter and Palm Beach are separate and very different places.
6
Can't read the human being mind. Someone can give a way hundred of million dollar to charity but when to fulfill his own sexual desire that person was looking for Kmart Blue Special.
8
If Kraft and his fellow plutocrats are convicted for their monetary support of this sex slave criminal enterprise, and must perform a period of community service as a part of their sentences, I would suggest that the court require them to work in a protective shelter or other facility which provides holistic care to these traumatized women. Let these cosseted .01 percenters fully absorb, up close, the destructive human consequences of their 15 minute pleasure jaunts.
18
@John Grillo
I'm pretty sure the victims would be further traumatized and probably terrorized if Kraft and his ilk showed up at a
"protective shelter". The victims would run from those shelters as fast as their legs would take them. (if you're thinking of those shelters that hide abused domestic victims from their abusers surely you know that those are not prisons and that abusers are usually kept in the dark about their locations)
Sorry John, but your comment is beyond insensitive and ignorant. Are you so naïve as to believe the customers of those places that force trafficked women into prostitution are not aware of what and how this is going on? And by the way, "15 minutes pleasure jaunts" are not the fundamental issue. It's the fact that those women have been trafficked and are there against their will (often because of retaliatory threats against their family back home). Surely you are aware that they have been brought to this country under false pretense and have read that to keep their plight secret they are moved every few weeks?
I suspect since those men would have no problem getting consensual sex, they favor those places because the sex is NOT basically consensual.....
6
Sorry Kati, but your own comment(the "punishment") hardly fit my initial comment(the "crime"). Perhaps if these powerful men, who objectified and degraded these powerless women, were forced to learn firsthand about the horrific details of their tragic circumstance, something positive might emerge from these criminal incidents for both the perpetrators and their victims. Never know when the empathy impulse might be stirred to action, resulting in humanistic and beneficial responses.
2
With all the emphasis on the "johns", why are the owners and individuals responsible for sex trafficking not highlighted in teh articles? They are the most important criminals. Their names need to be listed by the press; they need to walked into jail and their assets need to be taken. It seems that the press is much more interested in the sensation of the events versus addressing sex trafficking. They allowed the workers to continue working while they set up hidden cameras. Shame on Florida police and the new media!
11
@Ron Horn that would not give much shock value
1
There is about 100 of these massage places in Orlando were I live. They are right in plain sight in strip malls and and have black tinted windows so no one can see inside. Everyone knows what is going on inside and the police just do not have the man power to investigate all of them. It took months and thousands of man hours to shut down the 10 were Kraft went with many others opening up during that time frame. This is something that is not going away as long as tourists and locals are willing to pay for it. It needs to be legalized and taxed with inspectors checking in on a weekly basis..
7
@Sam Quinn "Legalized and taxed," really? Do you realize the women working in these places are victims of human trafficking? A major ethical problem with legalizing prostitution is how law enforcement can distinguish between the independent and willing purveyors of sexual services and the unwitting victims of predatory traffickers. Until that dilemma is solved, legalization and taxation of massage parlors would mean government would have another way to unethically reap rewards from human misery.
14
No. Much of the time the cops run protection rackets off of the pimps, or are making free use of the "services." Here in the Bay Area and in NYC there have been multiple "scandals" of cops running brothels or raping prostitutes. The former head of Contra Costa County anti-narcotics was running two brothels. Those are just the ones dumb or arrogant enough to get caught.
4
@Sam Quinn
Sex work has been legalized in a number of countries but they have at the same time enacted strong laws against pimping which most of the establishments you mention in fact are doing.
So don't you think that it's sex work that should be legalized but pimping/trafficking should be criminalized?
Incidentally if we had laws like for ex. the Netherland that required businesses that provide place for sex workers to do their job, those places should be run on the basis that they can collect fixed rents but not the sex workers' earnings. Also they have to provide amenities such as pushbutton alarms if a worker encounters a dangerous customer...
When the freedom of sex workers is guaranteed, you wont need all the inspections you mention. A woman is perfectly capable of moving to another place if the place where she is renting a room (and attached bathroom) is inadequate. She is also perfectly capable of having herself checked by a doctor regularly (of course the Netherlands like all other wealthy countries have single payer health care so the cost of staying healthy are not an issue)
Free sex workers like any service provider are paying income taxes which, in contrast, pimps (individuals and pimping organizations)tend to avoid.
3
The issue here is not just Kraft but the trafficked women who were locked into the Orchid Spa and forced to perform hundreds of times for these pathetic men. I don’t hear any concern for the sex slaves. What agency is going to help them? Most likely they will be deported. The limitless selfishness of these men using women is heartbreaking.
18
@Pay de salvage . Not sure about the WSJ, but the plight of the trafficked women has been covered extensively here in the South Florida media.
2
@Pay de salvage . Not sure about the NYT, but the plight of the trafficked women has been covered extensively here in the South Florida media.
1
@Pay de salvage
Oh I so agree with you...... :-(
1
Notice how all media outlets including the New York Times keep thrusting Kraft in the spotlight while relegating the arrests of two leading Wall Street execs in the same sting to the back burner. The latter two deserve greater scrutiny and exposure than Kraft.
14
@Skip Bonbright
Outside the financial world Kraft is more famous, therefore more "deserving" of notice.
The revolting thing is the idea of extremely wealthy men like the multi-billionaire Kraft buying bargain sex from deceived, illegal immigrant women trapped into working in unsanitary, ill maintained dumps.
Elliot Spitzer had a fall from grace when he was discovered to be a regular visitor to a very high priced house of prostitution in D.C. His "sins" were disloyalty & hypocrisy, but at least he paid plenty for his fun, was not taking advantage of virtually enslaved women.
3
Why?
The irony and sad reality at the heart of this, essentially, tabloid-style attention is how the police and communities ever allow “massage parlors” to exist as a businesses. The overt public position is, it’s okay, just as it is, say, to go to a Hooters rather than another fast food joint for a burger. It’s okay to tolerate “massage parlors” as part of the class of not-quite-Main-Street businesses. Until, selectively it’s not. Ban the stupid idea of massage parlors if that’s the issue.
5
In Atlanta we are all struck by the arrogance of Arthur Blank buying a $150 million Yayht made in Scandinavia. This is after Georgia just did a Yayht building credit. He needed $800 million of tax payer money for his Mercedes Benz stadiums. He also had to charge huge PLS.
Home Depot Employees only got a maximum of $1,000 bonus’s after 20 years in the store. Let’s just say there aren’t many. The corporate ranks thinned of long term ranks when they brought on Nardelli. even the CFO who now runs the AMB foundation ( he was my neighbor).
I hope that Angela Arthur 3rd wife who he announce he was divorcing ( the soccer mom, mother of his kids friends) retains a good divorce attorney because he obviously had this Yayht under construction. She needs at least $150 M.
He likes average women, #2 was and interior designer ( much younger) for Home Depot). She had three kids with him who are now in their late teens and early twenties . She became a fixture on the charity circuit, on the Atlanta.
Marcus the other HD partner was publically screaming to trump where is my payoff for my $6 m inauguration donation.
I go to ace and the local lumberyard when I can
8
I think Kraft choosing a low paid, foreign sex worker in a strip mall is far safer for him, publicity-wise, than a high class call girl who might know who he is and can blackmail him later for hush money.
7
@Gofry, that plan didn't work out too well for him, did it?
4
@Gofry
I suspect he chose that venue because, since the work is done by trafficked women who have to be forcefully moved every few weeks to keep them from escaping, he might have found the fact that the sex was in effect non consensual ( ongoing everyday rape) more pleasurable?
2
@jb
No it didn't. Just pointing out what he was likely thinking.
I never heard of them busting any of the expensive prostitutes that hang around the bars on palm beach island. Mr Kraft should have stuck around there like all his rich friends.
6
The real tragedy here is the victimization of the trafficked sex slaves by the billionaire "pillars of society". Will the NFL penalize the Patriot owner as the NBA did a few years back with the LA Clippers?
7
This whole episode and the way the article is written, smacks of Puritanism. Sex is a powerful drive and obviously this old very rich guy, probably lonely, liked the Red Light District allure of anonymous, tawdry sex for hire. If there was any indication of slavery or abuse, then this is where the story should go. As for making prostitution legal, I suppose this is the best way, not that I would hate any of the men in my family having to go this route --- or women for that matter.
3
...money talks, the walk to the crossbar hotel with short, swift and cheap....!!..the pimps will do the hard time and everybody will be happy..the "slaves" will disappear and life goes on...
@enuffallready
Why did you put slaves in quotation marks?
1
Time for an updated category for weird news : RICH Florida Man.....
Seriously, is it something in the water ? Or the very hot Sun ?
1
Are the Palm County police now secretly making porn videos and then asking for hush money? Kraft should know better. But this is an over broad illegal search. Prostitution among consenting adults is better when regulated...it eliminates the black market. The "human trafficking" rationale is just pure jibberish.
1
Kraft was in california..... just a short ride from Nevada....and voila The Bunny Ranch.... all legal, discreet and safe.....
Dope.
4
I was in Palm Beach once. It's a disgusting place filled with two-dimensional, self-important people, who are just as disgusting as the locale.
12
I wonder when America will wake up and realize that these people bleed just like they do.
2
They are shocked that someone who could pay any price indiscreetly goes looking for a bargain???? Perhaps they could muster some shock about how these women are treated, their living conditions, their ability to leave the situation, etc. etc. etc.
13
Hopefully Kraft will want to help these poor women who have been shamed by society
4
The time, energy and resources that are wasted on criminalizing prostitution are ridiculous, but then not surprising, in the still-puritanical US of A.
Whatever two consenting adults agree to between themselves should be their business and nobody else's.
It's one thing when women are forced into prostitution, but it's quite another if a person decides that that is how they want to make a living, just as some other people decide who they will shack up with, or date, or marry, based upon what they may get 'in return'. Relationships are often a business arrangement of sorts...give and take....I'll give you this if you give me that. Giving sex in return for money can be called prostitution by some, and 'dating' in other instances.
Focus on criminal behaviors, not on what two free, consenting adults may agree to do between themselves.
5
@Lisa
Allegedly, these masseuses were forced into their roles via the sex trade. Does that make the victim "consenting"?
12
@Lisa The criminal behavior here is that the women involved were basically held as prisoners and, apparently in some cases, in the country illegally. Users of their "services" like Mr. Kraft, aid and abet the underlying criminal enterprise that the women here subjected to. My guess is there was little, if any, "consenting" going on here.
12
@Lisa in NYC. The Florida newspapers and t.v. reports make it quite clear this has nothing to do with consensual prostitution. The women were shuttled by armed guards around a network of locations. Passports and id's held. Forced to live on the premises. All earnings held by the traffickers. This was human trafficking and sex slavery pure and simple.
43
Let's not forget that the massage parlor in question also has ties to the sex slavery market which brings up the issue of those patronizing this business.
Are they a part of the slavery market?
11
@NativeSon...Yes
7
'“For Robert Kraft to go in a place like this, for 69 or 79 bucks and give her a $100 tip — it just blows me away.'
Not the only one it seems...
5
@Chris
Do you actually believe she got to keep the tip if he actually handed it to her and not the manager/pimp!?
4
It's heartbreaking to consider the women trapped in such a place. It's sickening to consider the kind of man who would arrive there twice in two different Bentleys.
19
Legalizing prostitution, as so many here suggest, would do nothing to help the women of Asian Orchids and other brothels like it. To put this crudely, there aren't enough American citizens willing to have sex with eight to ten men a day for the price that these men are willing to pay. Traffickers will bring in women from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe to fill the gap. This has happened in European countries regardless of whether prostitution is illegal, decriminalized, or fully legalized. Despite their widely different laws, human trafficking in sex slaves is a problem in the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, and Italy. Sweden has implemented the most effective approach against sex slavery, and it's not legalization. It is legal to sell sex in Sweden but not to buy it. They prosecute the customers, not the prostitutes.
9
No surprise. The most common and destructive addictions are to money and Maslow's deficiency needs (for sex, safety/power, acceptance/approval, and status/esteem). Money is especially addictive because it can easily be converted into an array of dopamine-triggering drugs, wagers, power, peer approval, status, and more money.
Because there's only one addiction and it's to the powerful neurotransmitter dopamine, regardless of how dissimilar the triggers might seem (including opiates, booze, gambling, sex, status, money) the symptoms for all addictions are the same: denial, self-deception, a commitment to continue indulging addictive behaviors, and a disregard for even the most severe consequences (such as Mr. Kraft' mindlessly risking arrest and disgrace).
DopamineProject.org
2
@Charles. Your neuroscience is not accurate.
1
There is this idea that prostitution should be immediately legalized, and I agree.
There is this idea that Florida has way more important problems to focus on than prostitution, like the effect climate change is having. And I totally agree.
There is this idea that for the county or state or whoever it was to spend resources and burn gas on a prostitution sting was really dumb. And, again, I agree.
There is also this idea that this whole thing really supports the fact that the leaders in Florida are in denial or reality.
But, then, there might also be the idea that these billionaire johns that got caught up in the sting are really at the core of our real problem in this country, and that it is kind of a good thing to see their lifestyles of sheer materialism exposed.
5
Not much has changed in the last decade in South Florida. Acosta sweet plea deal for Epstein was all about Money, Power and Corruption! This turned out also to be a sweet deal for Acosta now trump's Secretary of Labor!
5
I don't think we can rule out the misogynistic aspect here. Let me project because Kraft is in the NFL, a bastion of misogynistic attitudes, beatings, rampant sex, etc.; and I worked with Havens. I'd feel very comfortable putting him in that category. These women didn't speak English. A shady strip mall with dirty facilities, women who can't speak English -- I mean, come on.
12
Looks like Florida is actually the cesspool for Robber Barons to congretate.
They got good old Rick Scott elected Governor and now plunked him into OUR Senate to weark havoc.
Time to tax their stolen/inherited weatlh to put OUR United States of America back on track for 99.9% of us. Turn their golf course havens into affordable housing for the workers.
46
"...Kraft’s involvement in the tawdry business of paid sex is another example of how wealth can breed a sense of entitlement that blinds."
Cut away the moralizing and this seems to be mostly another story about the exploitation of undocumented workers.
A few say to build a wall to keep the undocumented out.
Others have noted that if hard-ball tactics were taken against those who employ the undocumented, there would be a considerably smaller problem.
If all those who employ the undocumented faced hard time for doing so, regardless of what they were employed for and by whom, then you might really be faithfully addressing the problem in a way that doesn't reek of the racism implicit in Trump's wall.
42
I could start by saying "I am shocked, personally shocked..." but I am not. We ought to take sex business off the books and regulate it as a business with some protection for the women. Otherwise the law just continues to let the crooks rob women.
24
No
1
I'll shamefully admit, my first reaction was very similar to that of the interviewees in this article, "with all of his money, he goes to a strip mall at discounted rates?"
13
A lot of these letter writers are depicting Kraft as a victim of outmoded laws and old-fashioned morality. Kraft engaged in criminal activities with sex slaves...end of story.
121
It is ever mind-boggling to me, when men with all that money, power and prestige can't find a willing partner on their own merits ...never look at themselves and ask why.
40
@itsizzi - Good point.
3
Hard to understand why prostitution
is illegal in a free market system.
Alcohol, gambling and now drugs
are legal. Prostitution should be
legalizedas well. Buyers and sellers
are mutually consenting adults in
negotiated transactions. Women
are vulnerable in illegal and calendestine sex trade.
32
Robert Kraft, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein - what’s going with the new socialites in Palm Beach, NY and Hollywood?
1
@Ted Probably what has been going on for eons, but now it is harder to hide and people are more apt to not make an exception for the man with power.
5
"But even the suggestion that a prominent sportsman, businessman and philanthropist might have sought company in a seedy massage parlor up the road has many residents wondering why a man worth an estimated $6.6 billion would risk his reputation so recklessly on a $79-an-hour massage."
Rich or poor this comment underscores the very banality, if
not sheer puritanism, of where we are as a nation today.
This is Salem not Florida. Even given the far more serious
allegations of sexual abuse that have now become regimen
I seriously wonder if the cure isn't becoming worse than the curse. With abuse of women or anyone else, accusation, often
years after the alleged injustice and in the safety of the "herd
mentality," accusation itself has become both conviction
and the punishment. Look, the point's been made. It's high time to stop the witch hunt before it destroys others, amongst whom are numbered some of the otherwise best and most contributory amongst us.
4
@Jack Eisenberg There is video of him engaging in an illegal activity. Even if these women weren't enslaved, there is no witch hunt on Robert Kraft. No one was following Robert Kraft. Police were monitoring the massage parlor. and it's Robert Kraft's and his family's bad luck that he's a creep.There is no comparison between this and women who bring accusations of assault and rape. And, "the point's been made?" Really? Well, I guess women can breathe a big sigh of relief: Jack Eisenberg has called a moratorium on their trauma. Thanks, buddy.
76
Oh, man. “Just get over it?”
How many years of exploitation and/or abuse, and/or suppression? Enough to have normalized it. Fortunately, there are some pretty strong women out there who recognized what was happening and had the strength to expose and fight it.
This pendulum swing may be painful for you, but it addresses the worse pain many women have suffered for thousands of years.
4
Seems like the Gilded Age formed a gated community long before the Income Tax funded prohibition. So what happened to the Bureau of Arms, Tobacco and Firearms? Did Rockefeller bring organized crime with professional sports, meanwhile, as today's gazillionaires brought jobs to Miami?
Prostitution should be legalized, licensed, regulated and taxed. Requirements for licensing should include disease prevention and periodic medical checks. Prostitutes should pay all taxes normally payed by employees or independent contractors. Use Nevada as a model.
53
That spotlight on the doings of the rich and super-rich in Palm Beach, Jupiter, Boca and other enclaves of similar ilk could do some good if it's not just for tabloid journalism. Rather, let's take a close look at how these people made and make their millions and billions, often without paying much or even any taxes. Trump is one of them, and was dumb or brazen enough to bragg about it. States that have State income tax like New York, California, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts may want to take a close look how much time wealthy and super-wealthy residents like Kraft actually spend in income tax-free Florida, and where they make their (state taxable) income. And, before anybody says just abolish your own state's income tax: look at the outcome. No such thing as a free lunch. Otherwise, New York City would be empty, and Florida standing room only.
16
Can't decide what is dumber: that a billionaire would risk his reputation on such a low-rent, sleazy escapade, or that it's still a crime for consenting adults to engage in these transactions. Legalize, regulate and tax it and save law enforcement resources. It's always going to be there either way.
20
@Pat
The trafficked women who are enslaved in these establishments are not "consenting".
104
@Cousy...What facts can you provide that the women in this particular location are "enslaved"?
7
@Cousy Disagree. This myth is probably responsible for more crime, shame, suffering and arrests.
4
I bet Kraft thought that he would be found out if he had a high priced call girl, so he went the cheap route thinking no one would know. He is also probably very cheap.
54
If it wasn’t for the investigators targeting this place on the basis of potential human trafficking this would be laughable.
26
Time to get the holier than thou's, dangerous manipulation of our laws, out of men and women's bodies.
Especially the oldest profession on the planet.
7
@Getreal yes, let's get real indeed. These women are sex slaves brought to this country under false pretenses, then kept here against their will and under threat of retaliation against their relatives back in China.
Robert Kraft is worldly, educated, and highly connected. Don't tell me he thought the woman who "serviced" him was acting of her own free will, getting him off for a $100 tip she no doubt wouldn't even get to keep.
11
@Richard H. Duggan
Exploitation of anyone is wrong. So is painting everyone in that business with the same brush.
Get Real
1
Why does this article not mention the phrase “human trafficking”? I makes it sound like Kraft’s biggest crime was being tacky.
171
@Elizabeth I thought the same thing...the quote from a Mr. Ausem "For Robert Kraft to go to a place like this, for 69 or 79 bucks...it's just so stupid." No mention of the human trafficking and human slavery that Kraft contributed too...!
9
As much as I despise the arrogant,, NFL- owning, superrich, 'entitled', people who are so prevalent in our culture, I find this whole "scandal' ridiculous and over wrought.
Sex is a fact of life and if someone wants to pay for it - let them.
(health certificates please). Except for the family, this is unimportant on every level. I guess Kraft's friendship with Trump makes this Karma....
10
@dimseng - These women were slaves. How did you miss that part?
8
Good. I'm glad. This is what West Palm Beach and the State of Florida deserve. They throw down the red carpet for America's tax-avoiding billionaires and then are shocked, shocked when these entitled billionaires soil the red carpet.
59
New York Times, please stop reporting on this as just prostitution. Those women weren't prostitutes. They were human sex slaves. This is human trafficking, not prostitution. Prostitutes have agency. These women did not.
230
@Athena
Okay Athena, exactly how do you know that these women were coerced? Was it because law enforcement likes to justify their coercion of consenting adults by throwing out the word “trafficking.”
9
@Charlierf- It would NOT be consent of you were shipped from China with a promise of legitimate employment and are then kidnapped, their passports stolen, held 24/7 in the backroom of a massage parlor and forced to perform sex acts for the clientele of the establishment. "Sex trafficking accounted for 6,081 of the more than 8,500 reported cases of human trafficking in the United States in 2017, according to statistics from the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
"There is no official estimate of the total number of human trafficking victims in the U.S. Polaris, a nonprofit that operates the hotline on human trafficking, estimates that the total number of victims nationally reaches into the hundreds of thousands when estimates of both adults and minors and sex trafficking and labor trafficking are aggregated."
"Illicit massage or spa businesses, similar to the ones in the Florida case, were the top location or industry where sex trafficking occurred in 2017, with 714 reported cases, according to the hotline's data." https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/crime/2019/02/26/florida-human-sex-trafficking-ring-full-story/2978763002/
35
@Charlierf Because those were the findings of law enforcement which prompted the raid. What do you want to see - chains and shackles? Taking away somebody's passport and believably threatening them with violence if they talk or leave is quite enough for this charge.
42
wow...... anyone for raising taxes on the rich?
86
“You just would never hear of anything as sleazy as that in Palm Beach,” said Ronald Kessler.
Anyone who visits Florida knows that the above statement is ridiculous. Massage parlors are ubiquitous and many offer happy endings. The women who work in these places are NOT trafficked (there may be exceptions). They are generally immigrants from China trying to make a living in the US. They move between Florida and New York, just like the snowbirds. In summer, the massage business dries up.
If a man pays cash to a low-income sex worker, it makes them both criminals. If a man gives diamonds and furs to a mistress in exchange for sex, no problem. And, of course, if a man pays a woman for sex, but films it, that's perfectly legal because they are making a movie. These laws do NOT make sense. Consensual sex between adults should be decriminalized. In general, it is poorer women who are victimized by these laws.
Further, the search warrant that allowed videos to be made of massage parlor customers is a gross violation of the rights of massage customers.
Finally, it's offensive that people are criticizing Kraft because he is wealthy and should have expensive prostitutes come to his home instead of patronizing massage parlors (late night comedians are having a field day with this). Kraft, a single man of 71, should be perfectly free to visit the massage parlors in his neighborhood.
NYTimes, you're on the wrong side of this issue.
19
Pun intended? “That is what just absolutely shocks me about this whole thing,” Mr. Ausem said. “For Robert Kraft to go in a place like this, for 69 or 79 bucks and give her a $100 tip — it just blows me away. ‘I can put a hat on, I won’t be recognized.’ I mean, it’s just so stupid.”
Seriously?
3
If the women are in the country illegally and speak little or no English, it is less likely they would know who he was or the other executives. A professional escort may be nominally discreet, but she and likely her boss would very likely know who you are.
1
Kraft supports Trump. So bad behavior becomes normalized, even sex slavery. Team sports. Boston will look the other way, not to its credit.
60
@poslug
No, many of us in Boston and Brookline will not look the other way, slug. We've been arguing for years that the obscenely wealthy should be paying far more of their income and assets in taxes than they do to support this country. But they have the means to seek out lowest tax venues to "protect" their riches. Citizens United must be overturned, and our tax system must revert to some semblance of fairness. This means ridding current republicans from congress who believe government exists to make the rich richer.
We are sickened by the extensive propaganda paid for by the Krafts and their ilk that brainwash football fans on tv and radio and newspapers with their cleansed "news" clips and interviews. We are not impressed with their relatively small (to their total wealth) charitable donations, or their brief appearances for photo ops at fund-raising events. Not all rich men are evil, but most of them are clueless, egotistical, and self-indulgent.
It is up to the rest of us--and our government--to rein them in whenever their greed and sleaze pass reasonable boundaries. Unfortunately, we have entered an era when that seems more and more impossible without a catastrophic event to cause a total shakeup in the status quo.
10
Not sure how "Orchids of Asia" could be misconstrued as anything else or how they egregious innuendo of the store front "massage parlor" could have gone unnoticed for more than two days.
18
I’ve lived in WPB for 70 years
There are regular folks who live in PB
It’s a gorgeous place right on the Ocean, and it’s not the only place that has valet parking for the grocery store.
It’s pretty darn helpful for the older folks, who live there-and all over south Florida. I’m not rich but I’m all for people making money. The rich in PB hire a lot of people. That’s a good thing. I thought your tone of snark and uppity belittling was unnecessary. Just because someone is “regular folks” doesn’t mean they are necessarily morally superior . And vice versa. I’m pretty sure you can find people making stupid decisions everywhere.
Every time I drive over the bridge to PB I’m thrilled. It’s a splendid place.
14
Why no mention of the trafficked women who worked at this massage parlor and countless others in Florida and around the country?
That strikes me as much more important than the perceived glamour of Palm Beach or the stupidity of the wealthy perpetrator involved. Would it have been okay if Kraft had committed this crime in a less seedy establishment?
112
@Cousy The fact that these women are trafficked and forced to provide sex against their will is the attraction for these men. It's more disgusting than it seems on the surface.
55
@Maggie
This is what I have thought from the beginning. Part of the turn-on for Kraft are the circumstances of the "massage" he buys. Imagine the inside of this place. Minimal furnishings, no windows, hawk-eyed "managers", high turnover of customers, dubious health practices, the musty air of illicit sleaze. The women live in the place, their passports/visas confiscated by the pimps. They work under a grossly unfair "contract" where there are serious and scary consequences for not doing what it takes to earn enough to pay off whatever exploitative amount the pimps demand in exchange for the freedom to leave for good. *If* they are ever able to pay the amount demanded. Why else would "Orchids of Asia" be under investigation for human trafficking? Apparently, Kraft has no problem with any of this. Any claims that he didn't know are laughable.
12
See, they are just regular people like everyone else.
2
“The billionaires are arrogant. They think they are bulletproof.”
Why should they think otherwise. They have always had special consideration and fixers. What is sad is these people sit in judgment of others for their own indigression.
18
The billionaires are arrogant. They think they are bulletproof.
It goes way beyond that. I've worked on Palm Beach and seen up close what a strange, bizarre, alternate universe these people live in. I remember a man whose family had made so much money that neither he nor his children nor their children would ever have to work a day in their lives. Their money went back to the late 1800's. There was another man who never wore the same pair of pants to his private club when he arrived for dinner almost every night. He had a tailor who made new pants, that were really more like pajamas or sweat pants in garishly bright colors and patterns. Everyone else at the club didn't bat an eye at this eccentric behavior because in their own ways they were equally odd. The stories go on and on but these people are so out of touch with the common human being that the fact that these men were caught doing what they have been accused of makes perfectly logical sense once you have spent time around them. I was once asked by a patron at another exclusive club what I was doing in such close proximity to her and her table of friends as I went on a break.
There was no other way to go to the small room that held 3 chairs and just enough room for us to sit down during that break. The woman went ballistic because she felt she shouldn't have to be so close to the help. She said the club should do new construction so as to never have to be close to someone as lowly as me.
125
@Magan
"The Palm Beach/Martin operation has been getting the most attention, since it's the one that snagged Kraft. Some have extrapolated from his arrest to assume that all the customers at these massage parlors were rich, white men, and to insinuate that this is isolating them from more severe charges. But by all evidence, soliciting prostitution was the extent of their criminal conduct. And according to the arrest records, at least half of those arrested were men of color. Their listed occupations include an array of manual labor jobs, including "dog grooming," "mover," "roofer," and "painter."
http://reason.com/blog/2019/02/28/homeland-security-spied-on-chinese-women
3
Not a good year for the Kraft brand or name. Reference Berkshire-Hathaway. Warren and Robert have seriously stumbled.
4
“The billionaires are arrogant. They think they are bulletproof," just like Trump who thinks and behaves like he is invincible, even as a servant of the people.
Not all rich people are bad or reckless (e. g. Gates, Buffet.) It's that most of the rich and successful people start to believe rules of statistics don't apply to them, and they will never get caught or extraordinary good luck will never go away. Ego takes over mind and body. But, life has strange ways of showing you are wrong. Ask Kraft or his neighbor Tiger Woods.
13
@Jack - The bad ones tend to make headlines.
1
The guy's a widower. What's wrong with him paying for sex?
It's easy to push the angle of whether or not he should have known about the women's economic situation during a 30-minute encounter. But if he wants sex and is willing to pay for it, how else is he going to arrange it?
Most likely Mr. Kraft would have preferred an independent, professional sex worker. There was a site, Backpage.com, that gave sex workers autonomy by allowing them to advertise. The Feds shut it down. Now what's a widower, wanting sex and hoping to find a sex worker, to do?
6
@Wolf, I suspect a lonely billionaire could figure out something better than using immigrant women kept in massage parlors for his pleasure.
42
@Wolf
So Mr. Kraft's "needs" are to be met by a trafficked woman who must service eight or more men a day, only to be moved to another location when law enforcement gets suspicious or when the perceived need for "fresh" girls becomes apparent?
Wow.
83
@Wolf
So an elderly man must be arrested and media-molested because he wanted to feel the touch of a young woman. Congrats to publicity seeking law enforcement.
Then, when folks wonder about victimless “crime,” as usual, phoney charges of trafficking are raised. Do reporters ask the women if they were coerced? Rarely, it clashes with the victim “narrative.”
3
In the first sentence of this piece, Palm Beach is described as "exclusive". I beg to differ - this town is merely expensive. Anyone with enough money can buy in to this shallow community.
Apparently, anything - no matter how exploitative or distasteful - is available for a price, it's just a matter of how high.
120
@Cousy. Maybe they meant exclusive of good taste?
12