A Republican senator from North Dakota has pleaded guilty to having sex with minors after flying to Europe multiple times with taxpayer money.
Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks admitted in court on August 8 that he had sexual contact with young male masseuses during his multiple visits to the Czech Republic.
The disgraced official added that while he had paid the victims at the time of the abuse, he was not sure how old they were.
Holmberg initially pleaded not guilty and was accused in October 2023 for travel for the purpose of illegal sexual activities between June 2011 and November 2016.
Ray Holmberg, 80, a Republican senator from North Dakota has pleaded guilty to having sex with minors after flying to Europe multiple times with taxpayer money
He was also accused of receiving or attempting to receive child pornography between November 2012 and March 2013.
But in a plea agreement signed in June, Holmberg agreed to plead guilty to the earlier charge.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop charges of receiving and attempting to receive child abuse material and proposed a sentence on the low end of the guideline range.
The travel charges carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime parole.
The disgraced official added that although the victims had been paid by him at the time of the abuse, he was not 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
According to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Puhl, Holmberg had been to Prague 14 times between 2011 and 2021. She went into detail about the emails in which he described his meetings in the Prague court.
Puhl noted that the grandfather of five regularly visited a villa described by one of his traveling companions as a brothel where male teenage masseurs worked.
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 in August 2021, Holberg exchanged approximately 72 text messages with Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, who was in prison for child pornography and sexual abuse. The Fargo-Moorehead Forum said.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Puhl noted that the grandfather of five regularly visited a mansion that one of his traveling companions described as a brothel occupied by teenage male masseurs.
Holmberg also told the court that the Czech Republic has a lower age of consent than the U.S. and said he could not recall traveling to other countries for the same purpose.
The attorney further told the court that when detectives questioned an 18-year-old former Morgan-Derosier employee, the teenager stated he had sex with Holmberg in exchange for a contract to landscape a garden for an apartment complex.
The teen also said he saw Morgan-Derosier and Holmberg looking at child pornography in Holmberg’s home.
In May, Morgan-Derosier was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the U.S. District Court in Fargo in connection with child sexual abuse images.
When asked how he “got into this lifestyle,” the retired high school counselor said, “It was just something — I don’t want to say I fell into it, but something I did.”
He also told the court that the Czech Republic has a lower age of consent than the US, and he could not recall ever having traveled to other countries for the same purpose.
“I’ve been to a number of countries, but the Czech Republic is the one that stands out,” he said.
Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of possessing images of 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 in the North Dakota Senate for more than 45 years before stepping down in 2022
The Republican served in the North Dakota Senate for more than 45 years before resign until 2022.
Travel further reports of the North Dakota School Boards Association shows that Holmberg used government money in 2011, 2018 and 2019 for trips to Prague in the Czech Republic and to other cities, including Amsterdam and Berlin.
The trips were organized through the German teacher exchange program Global Bridges, which was funded by the North Dakota Legislature.
The North Dakota Legislature gave money to the state Department of Education, which essentially passed the money on to Global Bridges to pay for travel for teachers and legislators.
State Rep. Bob Martinson said he selected the lawmakers who went on the trip, mostly a mix of men and women, House and Senate members, Democrats and Republicans, to have “a balanced group of people who were interested in learning and could all get along so it wouldn’t be a political trip.”
Holmberg has no wife and has long been described as a ‘single day of two’
Holmberg “developed a really good relationship with Global Bridges, and they liked him, and they asked him to come to those meetings. They wanted to involve him,” Martinson said.
Earlier this year, the North Dakota School Boards Association approximately $142,000 returned to the state and ended his role in the Global Bridges teacher exchange program several months after the travel details were released.
In a statement, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley called Holmberg’s guilty plea “a significant milestone in North Dakota’s fight against child sex trafficking. Former Senator Ray Holmberg has admitted his heinous crimes and has now been convicted of conduct that fuels the domestic and global sexual exploitation of children.”
Holmberg has no wife and has long been described as a ‘single day of two’.