Oliver Sohngen, the founder of a New York City music school for children, was arrested on Tuesday, May 16, on federal charges alleging that he had sex with teen girls and tried to arrange sexual contact with girls as young as eight years old.
Sohngen, the owner of the Long Island City Academy of Music, faces an eight-count federal complaint alleging he engaged in sex trafficking of minor and other offenses.
Sohngen, who is originally from Germany and studied at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, allegedly used a pimp to arrange sexual encounters with girls eight to 17 years old.
None of the alleged victims named in the criminal complaint appeared to be students at Sohngen’s school.
Via ABC:
Sohngen appears to have exchanged text messages with an individual for the purpose of purchasing commercial sex acts with minor girls ranging in age from eight to seventeen,” Special Agent Miguel Collazo of Homeland Security Investigations said in the complaint. “Moreover, on at least two occasions, Sohngen engaged in various forms of sexual contact with 15- and 17-year-old girls, both times arranged” by the same individual.
Sometime between late 2015 and early 2016, the complaint alleges, Sohngen was talking by phone to an undercover New York City police officer pretending to be a 15-year-old girl. He allegedly tried to arrange to meet her for “oral sex and other sexual contact.”
Investigators learned of Sohngen after the pimp he is alleged to have contacted was arrested in November 2013, according to the federal complaint. A search of the pimp’s phone allegedly revealed contact information for Sohngen. The complaint also said that two teens identified Sohngen as having paid to have sexual contact with them.
Sohngen appeared in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan for an initial hearing, however, it is not immediately clear whether he has a defense attorney representing him at this time.
