Former North Dakota State Senator Sentenced to 10 Years’ Imprisonment for Traveling to Prague to Engage in Commercial Sex with Children 26MAR25

 

ANOTHER republican pedophile / sexual predator finally caught, prosecuted and jailed for his sexual abuse of underage boys. No surprise, just disgust, considering the perverse, corrupt, criminal record of NOT MY pres drumpf/trump and the gop / guardians of pedophiles and sexual predators-republican party. This from the Dept of Justice and Things You Don't Know

Former North Dakota State Senator Sentenced to 10 Years’ Imprisonment for Traveling to Prague to Engage in Commercial Sex with Children

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Office of Public Affairs

A former North Dakota state legislator for 45 years was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for traveling to Prague in the Czech Republic, where he paid to sexually exploit children.

According to court documents, Raymon (Ray) Everett Holmberg, 81, of Grand Forks, traveled to Prague approximately 14 times between 2011 and 2021. During these trips, while staying at a brothel that catered to men looking to engage in commercial sex with adolescent boys, Holmberg paid for sex acts with boys. During some of the trips, Holmberg used the alias “Sean Evans.” Witnesses told law enforcement that Holmberg did not want his name on the brothel’s registry because he was a North Dakota state legislator. Witnesses also told law enforcement that Holmberg would also visit a public park in front of the main train station in Prague to procure sex from underage boys. 

Holmberg also used the “Evans” alias to tell friends about his trips and encourage them to travel to Prague. In these communications, Holmberg shared an image of an adolescent boy that he called “his twink,” and said that “no one is ever to [sic] young . . . remember Prague.” He emailed a different friend a link to a brothel in Prague and suggested that they go that summer, writing: “The boys rent at around $60 . . .  (sex is extra).”  Holmberg also wrote: “It will be decadent but oh so much fun bro.  What happens in Prague—Stays in Prague.” Back in the United States, Holmberg boasted about having engaged in sexual activity with boys as young as 12- and 15-years old during his travels.

According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, Holmberg’s sexual exploitation of minors was not limited to his trips to Prague. Holmberg established an online relationship with a 16-year-old Canadian boy, posing as a boy of a similar age in order to manipulate the Canadian teen into taking images of himself engaging in sexually explicit conduct and sending them to Holmberg.  

On Aug. 8, 2024, Holmberg pleaded guilty to traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct.

Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl for the District of North Dakota made the announcement.

Homeland Security Investigations, Grand Forks, and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations investigated the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and law enforcement partners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia provided substantial assistance.

Trial Attorney Charles Schmitz of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl for the District of North Dakota are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Updated April 29, 2025

Things You Don't Know

 

2 days ago ·

Why did a judge triple the sentence prosecutors asked for?

Ray Holmberg, a Republican, spent 45 years in the North Dakota Senate, chaired its budget-writing committee, and had worked as a school counselor. He resigned in 2022 after The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reported on dozens of his text messages with a man jailed in a child sexual abuse material case.

According to prosecutors, he traveled to Prague about 14 times between 2011 and 2021 and paid for sex with underage boys, sometimes under the alias "Sean Evans." At least one trip ran through a state-funded teacher exchange program, they said. He pleaded guilty in 2024 to traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and a charge of receiving child sexual abuse material was dropped as part of the deal.

On March 26, 2025, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland sentenced him to 10 years, more than three times the 37 months prosecutors had requested, and called his conduct "egregious and despicable." His lawyer had asked for home confinement, citing his age and health. Asked about messages bragging about sex with minors, Holmberg said he was "trying to impress people" and that the stories were untrue. He did not appeal and must register as a sex offender.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, North Dakota Monitor, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, Grand Forks Herald, AP, KFGO