NFL

Patriots owner Robert Kraft busted for soliciting prostitution

First there were Tom Brady’s deflated balls — and now this!

The billionaire owner of the New England Patriots was caught on camera engaging in sex acts in a seedy South Florida massage parlor — shortly before his team won its sixth Super Bowl, cops said Friday.

Robert Kraft, 77, allegedly paid for the services of a prostitute during “two different visits” last month to the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter.

Kraft was among 25 suspected johns whose names were released as part of a sprawling, six-month investigation into human trafficking and prostitution at area massage parlors.

“He is being charged with the same offenses as the others, and that is soliciting another to commit prostitution,” Jupiter Police Chief Daniel Kerr told reporters at a news conference.

He added: “We’re as equally stunned as everybody else.”

Kraft faces two counts of the misdemeanor charge, Kerr said.

Under Florida law, a first offense carries up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

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

Kraft has a double apartment in a luxury waterfront development in Palm Beach, next to The Breakers, the famed hotel and resort modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.

His apartment is about a 35-minute drive from the Orchids of Asia, which is located in a shopping center anchored by a Publix Supermarket off US Highway 1.

Kraft was allegedly driven to and from the massage parlor by a chauffeur who will not be charged, Kerr said.

The massage parlor was shuttered following a police raid on Tuesday, and has an orange sign that says “DANGER” stuck to its front door.

Before it was taken offline on Friday, the spa’s Web site advertised a “variety of massage modalities,” including “Tokyo Ultimate 4 Hand,” along with a 10 percent discount for first-time customers and “frequent guest” packages.

“Also, there are private, quite (sic) and clean rooms and soft music for you. Come to take a top quality massage service!” the home page said.

Reviews on the Yelp! Web site include claims that a man who went there was offered a “happy” ending and that a woman who went there for a bikini wax saw a “parade of men” enter.

The spa charged johns $59 for a half hour and $79 for a full hour, said Det. Andrew Sharp, who was lead investigator on the case.
Sharp wouldn’t say how long Kraft allegedly spent there during his visits.

Cops gathered evidence through both body-worn cameras and cameras installed in the massage parlor, officials said.

“The video that we obtained, it shows the act that took place,” Sharp said.

“On every gentleman that you have a list of, the act that took place is recorded on that video.”

Also on the list is former Citigroup president and COO John Havens, 62, who’s now chairman of Citi’s former hedge-fund arm, Napier Park Global Capital, Bloomberg News reported.

A woman who answered the phone at his Locust Valley home hung up when The Post asked for him, and Napier Park didn’t return a request for comment.
Others on the list range in age from 36 to 84.

Kraft, a paper-products tycoon, bought the Patriots for $172 million in 1994 and steered the team to unrivaled dominance over the NFL.

Earlier this month, the team beat the Los Angeles Rams, 13-3, to win Super Bowl LII and tie the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Big Game victories.

Although he’s a Democrat, Kraft is friendly with President Trump and is a frequent guest at Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

During an Oval Office news conference, Trump called the allegations against Kraft “very sad.”

“I was very surprised to see it. He’s proclaimed his innocence totally and — but I’m very surprised to see it,” Trump added.

Kraft is a Harvard Business School grad whose estimated personal fortune of $6.6 billion makes him the 79th richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

He made his money by buying out and expanding his late father-in-law’s packaging company, the Rand-Whitney Group, and later founded the International Forest Products paper company, both of which are privately owned.

He also founded the Kraft Group holding company, through which he owns the Patriots.

In 2015, the team was fined a record $1 million and stripped of two draft picks over allegations that star quarterback Brady deflated game footballs for a better grip on the pigskin.

Brady was suspended for four games over the “Deflategate” scandal.

It was preceded by “Spygate,” in which the Pats were accused of videotaping the signals of opposing teams between 2000 and 2007.

Kraft wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing either time.

His late wife, Myra, died of cancer at age 68 in 2011.

The couple married in 1963 and raised four sons, including Jonathan Kraft, who is president of the Patriots and the Kraft Group.

In 2012, Kraft began dating model and actress Ricki Noel Lander, 39, who’s had bit parts in the Marvel movies “Iron Man” and “Ant-Man,” and has appeared on TV shows including “Blue Bloods,” which stars Brady’s ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan.

But in February 2017, he brought an unidentified woman to a Boston Celtics game where he sat courtside with team owner Wyc Grousbeck and his wife, Emilia Fazzalari — but apart from his date to avoid being photographed, the Boston Globe reported at the time.

Last year, Page Six exclusively reported that Kraft denied fathering the child Lander secretly had in the fall of 2017, with a spokesman saying he was nonetheless “thrilled with Ricki’s blessing of having a healthy child.

Additional reporting by Lia Eustachewich and Post Wires