Prosecutor Alleges Former Lawmaker From Grand Forks Had History of Exploiting Boys

(Dan Koeck/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Amy Dalrymple . North Dakota Monitor) –  A former North Dakota lawmaker set to be sentenced next week for a child sex crime has a history of leveraging his power to exploit vulnerable boys and young men, a prosecutor alleges in court documents filed.

Ray Holmberg of Grand Forks, once one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers, will be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Fargo on March 26 after pleading guilty in August to traveling abroad to have sex with adolescent boys.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl describes in a sentencing memorandum Holmberg’s pattern of sexual exploitation that investigators uncovered, including more than 14 trips to Prague for the purpose of having sex with underage boys between 2011 and 2021.

“The boys and young men with whom Holmberg sought to engage in commercial sex were some of the most vulnerable in the world,” the document states. “Especially in Prague, they were homeless boys and men often recruited to work at the Villa by its owner because of their vulnerabilities.”