Former N.D. state senator pleads guilty to sex with minor boys in Czech Republic

Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A once powerful North Dakota state senator has pleaded guilty to traveling to the Czech Republic to engage in paid sex with minor boys, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

Ray Holmberg, 80, pleaded guilty to making 14 trips to Prague between 2011 and 2021 to "engage in commercial sex acts with minor boys," sometimes using the alias "Sean Evans" while staying at a brothel where young boys provided sex acts, prosecutors said in a statement.

Holmberg, a Republican from Grand Forks, N.D., resigned from the North Dakota Legislature in 2022 following a 45-year political career that saw him rise to the powerful position of Senate Appropriations Committee chair.

The resignation came after the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead newspaper revealed that Holmberg and convicted sex offender Nicholas Morgan-Derosier exchanged 72 text messages as Morgan-Derosier was being held on child pornography charges.

Holmberg's guilty plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland during an appearance Thursday at the federal courthouse in Fargo. He pleaded guilty to one count of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

No sentencing date was set but prosecutors told Hovland they plan to ask for roughly three years in prison, the Forum reported.

Prosecutors alleged Holmberg also used the "Evans" alias to brag to his friends about the trips, in which he discussed "his twink" and stated that "no one is ever too young ... remember Prague."

Among his other e-mailed comments to friends were, "What happens in Prague -- stays in Prague" and "The boys rent at around $60 (sex is extra)."

Justice Department officials said the case was brought as part its Project Safe Childhood initiative launched in 2006 to "combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse."