An explosive new report from Mother Jones reveals that a Florida businesswoman has been profiting off of her connections to the Trump family. Li
Yang founded the chain of spas and massage parlors that was identified
by law enforcement last month as a front for human trafficking in a case
that, most notably, implicated Donald Trump’s dear friend, New England
Patriots owner Bob Kraft.
Though she no longer owns the establishments in question, Yang, 45, became somewhat of a household name this week after the Miami Herald revealed that her social media accounts revealed a slew of selfies with some of the GOP’s most prominent and dangerous members.
Though she no longer owns the establishments in question, Yang, 45, became somewhat of a household name this week after the Miami Herald revealed that her social media accounts revealed a slew of selfies with some of the GOP’s most prominent and dangerous members.
(Yang’s) Facebook is covered in photos of herself standing with President Trump, his two sons, Eric and Donald Jr., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, Sarah Palin, the president’s campaign manager and an assortment of other high-level Republican operators she has met at charity events, political fundraisers and galas, many of which require hefty donations to attend. She sometimes carries a rhinestone encrusted MAGA clutch purse.
But Yang, as Mother Jones discovered, wasn’t just using those images to make her Facebook friends jealous.
Instead, she was using them as proof of GOP and Trump family access she promised to share with prominent Republicans to Chinese business leaders—for a price.
(Yang) 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, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—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.
The GY US website, which Mother Jones reports stopped working after the Herald story, made a LOT of big promises.
The GY US website went on to advertise numerous events at Mar-a-Lago, including “something called the International Leaders Elite Forum, where Trump’s sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, will supposedly be the featured speaker.” Specifically flaunting the photo ops available, the now-defunct website also claimed that GY US could get people into Mar-a-Lago’s New Year’s Eve parties—for a price.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.”
It’s unclear how close Yang is to the Trump family and other members of the GOP, but it’s obvious that, through GY US, she was selling whatever access she did have.
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.Mother Jones notes that Yang, who’s been in the United States for roughly two decades, hadn’t voted in the ten years before Trump was elected. Since then, she’s been a GOP staple in South Florida, with activities, and possibly crimes, that appear to go far deeper than the trafficking of terrified women to powerful men.
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