By Theodore Parisienne Posted – 8:28PM
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, today announced a Grand Jury Indictment against Lawrence Ray, also known as ‘Lawrence Grecco’, that included charges of Sex Trafficking, Extortion and Forced Labor.
Berman made the announcement alongside William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director In Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during a press conference at their offices in downtown Manhattan.
Lawrence Ray aka ‘Lawrence Grecco’ was arrested earlier this morning in New Jersey and was scheduled to make his first appearance in Court later this afternoon in Manhattan.
According to the allegations contained within the Indictment, Lawrence Ray aka ‘Lawrence Grecco’ moved into an on campus dorm room at a College in Westchester County, New York, sometime over the Summer of 2010.
At the time, the room was occupied by one of his daughters who was enrolled at the College, along with her male and female roommates.
The Indictment further alleges that over a period of almost ten years, Lawrence Ray aka ‘Lawrence Grecco’ presented himself as a father figure to the students, started holding ‘Therapy Sessions’ and imparting his personal philosophy.
Lawrence Ray aka ‘Lawrence Grecco’ gradually gained the students’ trust and confidence, which he then used to extract intimate details of their personal lives, including struggles with mental health issues.
He convinced several students that they were ‘broken’ and needed him, alienating them from their parents. With these students firmly in his grasp, Lawrence Ray aka ‘Lawrence Grecco’ ramped up his game, holding interrogation sessions, employing sleep deprivation techniques, making false accusations to and extracting false confessions from the students to include that they tried to poison Ray and his family, which he video taped.
Lawrence Ray aka ‘Lawrence Grecco’ is also alleged to have used psychological, physical and verbal abuse as well as threatening to file criminal legal action against the students. He is also alleged to have used sexual humiliation, forcing them to have sex with each other while he watched (even over the internet if they were not physically in the same location), threats of disembowelment with knives and actual physical violence where students were choked. Ray convinced them they owed him tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars for which the students did anything to pay the perceived debt (Ray is alleged to have collected close to one million dollars). Some leaned on their parents, were forced to work performing physical improvements to private property owned by Rays’ family in Pinehurst, North Carolina and one student even put to work as a prostitute.
You can read the twenty-two page Grand Jury Indictment and all the sordid allegations here:
