A Republican senator from North Dakota has pleaded guilty to having sex with minors after flying to Europe using taxpayer money on multiple occasions.
Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, admitted in court Aug. 8 that he had sexual contact with young masseuses during his multiple visits to the Czech Republic.
The disgraced public official added that while the victims had received payments from him at the time of the abuse, he did not know for sure how old they were.
Holmberg initially pleaded not guilty and was accused in October 2023 for traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity between June 2011 and November 2016.
Ray Holmberg, 80, a Republican senator from North Dakota, pleaded guilty to having sex with minors after flying to Europe using taxpayer money on several occasions.
He was also charged with receiving or attempting to receive child pornography between November 2012 and March 2013.
But in a plea agreement signed in June, Holmberg agreed to admit guilt on the earlier charge.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the charges of receiving and attempted receiving child sexual abuse material and recommend a sentence at the low end of the guidelines range.
The travel charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release.
The disgraced public official added that while the victims had received payments from him at the time of the abuse, he did not know for sure how old they were.
He was also charged with receiving or attempting to receive child pornography between November 2012 and March 2013, but that charge was dropped as a result of the agreement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl said Holmberg had made 14 trips to Prague between 2011 and 2021 and went into detail about his emails describing his encounters in Prague in court.
Puhl said the grandfather of five frequented a villa that one of his traveling companions described as a brothel housing teenage masseuses.
Another traveling companion told investigators he paid for the nights at the villa because Holmberg did not want his name on the registry, Puhl said.
An earlier report revealed that Holberg had exchanged approximately 72 texts in August 2021 with Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, who was in prison for child pornography and sexual abuse offenses. The Fargo-Moorehead Forum saying.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl said the grandfather of five frequented a villa that one of his traveling companions described as a brothel that housed teenage masseuses.
Holmberg also told the court that the Czech Republic has a younger age of consent than the United States and said he could not recall traveling to other countries for the same purpose.
The attorney also told the court that when investigators interviewed an 18-year-old former Morgan-Derosier employee, the teen said he had sex with Holmberg in exchange for a landscaping contract from the condo association.
The teen also said he saw Morgan-Derosier and Holmberg viewing child sexual abuse material at Holmberg’s home.
In May, Morgan-Derosier was sentenced to 40 years in prison in U.S. District Court in Fargo in connection with child sexual abuse images.
Asked how he got “caught up in this lifestyle,” the retired high school counselor said, “It was just something… I don’t want to say I fell into it, I did.”
In addition to this, he also told the court that the Czech Republic has a younger age of consent than the United States and said he did not recall having traveled to other countries for the same purpose.
“I’ve been to several countries and the only one that stands out is the Czech Republic,” he said.
Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of possessing images depicting child sexual abuse and one count of receiving and distributing such images. In May, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The Republican served more than 45 years in the North Dakota Senate before resigning in 2022.
The Republican served more than 45 years in the North Dakota Senate before giving up in 2022.
In addition, travel records of the North Dakota The Association of School Boards shows that Holmberg used public funds for trips in 2011, 2018 and 2019 to Prague in the Czech Republic and other cities, including Amsterdam and Sedan.
The trips were arranged through the Germany-based Global Bridges teacher exchange program, which received funding from the North Dakota Legislature.
The North Dakota Legislature gave money to the state Department of Public Instruction, which essentially passed it on to Global Bridges to pay for travel for teachers and lawmakers.
State Rep. Bob Martinson said he handpicked the lawmakers who made the trips — typically a mix of men and women, House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans — for “a balanced group of people who were interested in learning and would get along with each other so it wouldn’t be a political trip.”
Holmberg does not have a wife and has long been described as a “one-man-only” man.
“Holmberg had a very good relationship with Global Bridges, they liked him and asked him to come to these meetings. They wanted him to be involved,” Martinson said.
Earlier this year, the North Dakota School Boards Association returned around $142,000 to the state and ended his role in the Global Bridges teacher exchange program months after posting the travel records.
In a statement, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley called Holmberg’s guilty plea “an important milestone in North Dakota’s battle against child sex trafficking. Former state Senator Ray Holmberg has admitted his heinous crimes and has now been convicted of conduct that furthers the sexual exploitation of children domestically and internationally.”
Holmberg has no wife and has long been described as “a two-man.”