Suffolk County Clerk Vincent Puleo owns strip mall with foot spa tied to alleged sex acts

A St. James foot spa operating in a strip mall owned by Suffolk County Clerk Vincent Puleo features indicators commonly associated with illicit activity, including online customer reviews of sexual contact  and no massage license.

In addition, during 10 hours of observation over three days last week, Newsday reporters saw only men entering and exiting the K&T Foot Spa, some as early as 10 a.m. and others as late as 10 p.m.

Puleo, after a week of inquiries from Newsday about the online reviews of sex being sold at the spa, issued a statement Tuesday through his spokesman, Todd Shapiro, that announced he was terminating the spa’s lease. Shapiro said Puleo made the decision because of Newsday's reporting.

"I was shocked and disappointed to learn of serious allegations involving a tenant operating within a shopping center that I am the landlord. I have taken immediate steps to terminate this tenant’s occupancy and close the business," Puleo wrote, referring to his tenant, Thomas Hagzan, whom he described in an earlier interview as his friend of 30 years.

Hagzan declined to comment on the lease termination.

Puleo’s statement went on to say, "I formally requested that the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office conduct a full investigation into these allegations and the business. It is my understanding that neither the Suffolk County Police Department, nor the Town had received any complaints regarding this alleged illegal business. I appreciate Newsday bringing this to my attention so I could take immediate action. Illegal activity of any kind will not be tolerated and has no place in our communities."

District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment on whether his office is investigating K&T Foot Spa.

Newsday examined the spa as part of its broader investigation into illicit sex at Long Island massage businesses. The Newsday investigation found that arrests for sex-related crimes at such spas have skyrocketed in the last five years on Long Island.

Puleo, who has served as vice chairman of the Suffolk County Conservative Party and is a longtime political fixture in Smithtown, was town clerk when a law designed to regulate massage businesses was proposed but was never enacted.

He and Hagzan said they signed the lease for the spa in 2020, the same year the law was proposed and discussed, but never voted on. 

K&T Spa, which appears to be named after the couple who owns it — Kiki and Tom Hagzan — is listed on Rubmaps, a site promoting erotic massage spas across the country.

The online postings, which describe sexual services, and the activity observed by Newsday at the spa, is indicative of an illicit sex business, an expert said.

"That is literally the checklist for an illicit massage parlor," said Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, director of the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at Arizona State University in Phoenix.

'Closed temporarily'

The spa was open seven days a week. Records show that Hagzan incorporated the business in 2021, and neighboring businesses say it's been operating for at least five years.

On Sunday morning, two reporters visited the spa and it was open for business. Kiki Hagzan, reached by phone, agreed to meet reporters there the next day.

Later Sunday, a reporter stopped by Suffolk Police's Fourth Precinct, which patrols the Smithtown area, and inquired about any illegal activity at the K&T Foot Spa. The police at the front desk said they didn’t know of any.

Shortly afterward, a handwritten sign appeared on the spa's door saying "Closed temporarily."

In a phone interview Monday, Kiki Hagzan said they had decided to go on vacation for a couple of days.

The strip mall on Lake Avenue has six businesses on the first level and eight apartments on the second. Newsday contacted multiple tenants and neighboring business owners. They declined to comment on the record, but one said Sundays are a particularly busy day at the spa.

Puleo described himself as a diligent manager of the strip mall. "I’m there all the time," he said.

A September 2023 online review on Utopiaguide, a review site for sex buyers, described a woman working there as providing sexual services to a male customer. "I was thinking this is a legit place as she put the sheet on me and did a pretty good massage," the reviewer wrote. "Then she took the sheet off and ... " The review went on to describe sexual services in more detail.

In January 2025, one person wrote on Yelp, "just an FYI, my boyfriend went here and called me after his massage. ... He wasn't expecting for his private area to be tapped and to be asked 'You want' with a suggestive hand gesture."

Thomas Hagzan, asked in an earlier interview if all the women working at the business are licensed, said he didn’t know. He said he only handles the spa’s paperwork.

When Kiki Hagzan was asked in a separate interview whether she was licensed to practice massage, she said only that "There is a tag," apparently referring to a license with her maiden name, Mao, and her photo posted on the foot spa wall.

Newsday sent a photo of the license to the New York State Department of Education, which licenses massage therapists. Spokeswoman Karen Male said it was for cosmetology, not massage therapy.

Local law pulled

Puleo, 72, served as town clerk of Smithtown for 16 years before being elected to county clerk in 2022. A registered Conservative Party member, he won Republican backing and was renominated in February to run for another four-year term. As county clerk, he made $221,000 last year, according to payroll records.

Puleo was town clerk of Smithtown when the proposed local law designed to regulate massage businesses was pulled from the voting roll and never enacted. The town clerk is the official custodian of town records. That includes maintaining meeting minutes and managing public records.

The proposed law required owners to file an application with the town listing the names of employees and that massage therapists all be licensed. It also required periodic inspections.

On July 16, 2019, Puleo signed the notice for a public hearing on the law. It was held the following month.

At the hearing, Supervisor Ed Wehrheim spoke of the difficulty of shutting down illicit massage businesses. "We can go shut them down for not being licensed, and they open up the next day," he said, according to meeting minutes.

Wehrheim said the law was necessary to tackle the problem of illicit massage businesses. "The only way we’re going to be able to control it is to change the town code, which is what we’re doing," he said at the meeting.

He set the date for voting on the law for Sept. 3, 2019.

The massage business law appeared on the agenda for the meeting that day. But before it came up for a vote, the number that had been assigned to it was given to another proposed local law. As a result, board members voted to approve a law about special exceptions for filling stations. There was no mention of massage parlors and no explanation in the meeting minutes as to why the change happened.

Local law numbers are determined by the town clerk, Town Attorney Matthew Jakubowski said.

Records show the town board held another public hearing on the proposed massage law in March 2020. But once again, there was no vote on the law.

Paul Sabatino, municipal law attorney and former Suffolk County legislative counsel, reviewed the records for Newsday.

"I've never seen anything like this," he said.

After speaking to Newsday several times, Puleo stopped returning calls on Friday. He did not respond to a text message asking him about the proposed legislation.

Wehrheim did not respond to an interview request or questions. The only board member to comment was Thomas McCarthy, who said he thought the proposed law was an "excellent law" and, "We should probably look back at it."