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A former North Dakota Republican who was once one of the state's most powerful lawmakers has pleaded guilty to traveling to Europe with the intent of paying for sex with minors.
Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, appeared in federal court Thursday and admitted to having sexual contact with a young male masseuse during multiple visits to the Czech Republic while he was a state senator from about June 2011 to about November 2016.
Holmberg also used public funds to cover some of the costs of his trip.
In court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Poole said Holmberg visited Prague 14 times between 2011 and 2021 and stayed at a hotel called Villa Mansland.
One of the guests described the villa as a brothel featuring teenage male masseuses, while the other claimed he paid for the villa because Holmberg did not want his name on the record, prosecutors said.
Holmberg claimed he may have found out about the villa on the internet and acknowledged having sexual contact with “several” masseuses.
But he claimed he did not know the masseuse's age, and noted that the age of consent in the Czech Republic is 15, lower than in the United States.
According to travel records from the North Dakota School Boards Association, Holmberg used public funds for trips to Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague in 2011, 2018 and 2019.
Ray Holmberg pleaded guilty to traveling to Europe to engage in sex acts with a minor (Bismarck Tribune)
It is unclear whether he had sex with minors on those particular trips.
The disgraced Republican was initially charged in October 2023 with traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity and receiving and attempted receiving child sexual abuse material.
In June, he reached a plea deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to the first charge in exchange for the second charge being dropped.
He faces up to 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and life on probation.
But the judge noted that federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence in the range of three to four years for such cases.
Holmberg will also be required to register as a sex offender.
A date for sentencing has not yet been set.
Holmberg spent nearly 50 years as a state senator and was a long-time influential figure in North Dakota politics.
He retired in 2022 following a Fargo-Moorhead Forum report that exposed dozens of text messages between him and Nicholas James Morgan Desrosiers, who is currently serving a 40-year sentence for possession of child pornography.
Holmberg is a former teacher and school counselor who worked in Grand Forks Public Schools from 1967 to 2002.
In November, the state board voted unanimously to suspend his lifetime teaching license, with the intention of revoking it immediately upon a conviction or guilty plea.
