Former North Dakota politician admits traveling to Czech Republic for underage sex

Former North Dakota Congressman Ray Holmberg, 80, has pleaded guilty to traveling to Europe with the intention of paying for sex with minors.Holmberg admitted in court that he paid young male masseurs during several trips to the Czech Republic.In 2023, he was charged with illegal sexual activity and child abuse material, but he agreed to a plea deal.

A powerful former North Dakota lawmaker pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to charges he traveled to Europe with the intent to pay for sex with a minor.

Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, admitted in court that he paid young male masseuses during multiple trips to the Czech Republic and had sexual contact with them, but said he was unsure of their ages.

Holmberg was charged in October 2023 with traveling with intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity and receiving and attempting to receive child sexual abuse material. The Republican served in the North Dakota Senate for more than 45 years before stepping down in 2022.

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Holmberg signed a plea agreement in June in which he pleaded guilty to the first charge. Prosecutors would dismiss the second charge and recommend a sentence on the lower end of the guideline.

Judge Daniel Hovland accepted his request and allowed Holmberg to remain free, with restrictions, until a later sentencing hearing. The disgraced former lawmaker, who wore a dark suit, declined to comment after the hearing.

The travel charges carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime parole.

In the plea agreement, Holmberg acknowledged that he “repeatedly traveled from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Prague, Czech Republic for the motivating purpose of engaging in commercial sex with adolescents under the age of 18.”

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In court, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Puhl laid out the allegations against Holmberg, including his emails with others about his encounters in Prague. Puhl said he went to Prague 14 times from 2011 to 2021 and visited a villa that a traveling companion described as a brothel with teenage male masseurs. Another traveling companion told investigators he paid for nights at the villa because Holmberg did not want his name on the registry, Puhl said.

Puhl said the investigation began around 2020-21 when child exploitation investigators focused on a landscaper Holmberg knew named Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier. She said investigators interviewed an 18-year-old former Morgan-Derosier employee who said he had sex with Holmberg in exchange for a landscaping contract, and also observed Morgan-Derosier and Holmberg viewing child abuse material in Holmberg’s home.

In 2022, after initially announcing he would not seek re-election, Holmberg resigned from his Senate seat after The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reported on dozens of text messages the lawmaker had exchanged with Morgan-Derosier, who was in prison at the time. Morgan-Derosier is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence.

The judge asked Holmberg how he “became entangled in this lifestyle,” how old the youngest person he paid for sex was and whether he traveled to other countries for the same purpose.

Holmberg, a retired high school counselor, said, “It was just something — I don’t want to say I fell into it … that I did that,” and “it was after I retired before this activity happened.” He retired in 2002. He said he had been to Prague a few times before 2011, because he liked the opera and the castles. He said he generally traveled alone.

Holmberg said he learned about the villa after possibly seeing it online, but he said he wasn’t sure how old the masseuses were or how many encounters he had with them. Sexual contact occurred with “some of them,” he said. He noted that the Czech Republic has a younger age of consent than the U.S. and said he couldn’t recall traveling to other countries for the same purpose.

“I’ve been to a number of countries and the one that stands out is the Czech Republic,” he said.

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Holmberg was faced with a number of conditions of his release, including travel restrictions, location surveillance and the surrender of his passport.

On Friday, a pretrial services officer filed a report stating that Holmberg had not complied with those conditions, which included unauthorized internet access, a visit to a sex shop and one instance of testing positive for alcohol. Holmberg was not arrested.

The judge said he would honor an agreement between Holmberg’s attorney and prosecutors to keep him free until sentencing. His attorney, Mark Friese, cited Holmberg’s various health issues and upcoming medical appointments. The judge told Holmberg he was concerned about his compliance.

Holmberg served for many years as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes budgets. He also chaired the Legislative Management panel, which handles various matters between biennial sessions. That job allowed him to approve his own travel.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that Holmberg has made dozens of trips across the U.S. and other countries since 1999. Destinations have included cities in more than 30 states, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and Norway.

Earlier this year, the North Dakota School Boards Association repaid about $142,000 to the state and ended its role in the Global Bridges teacher exchange program. The move came months after travel records were released following Holmberg’s indictment, showing he used state money when he traveled to Prague and other European cities in 2011, 2018 and 2019.

It is unclear whether the misconduct authorities allege occurred during any of these trips.

The factors in Holmberg’s case likely make it the biggest political scandal in North Dakota history, said former U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon.

“You have a very high profile politician. You have literally the worst accusation you can imagine, sexually abusing and raping a child,” he said. “And then you have the idea that taxpayers’ money was used to pay for the plane ticket.”

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In a statement, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley called Holmberg’s guilty plea “an important 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.”