Man Accused Of Sex Trafficking, Extorting Sarah Lawrence Students

YONKERS, NY — A New Jersey man who is the father of a former Westchester college student was accused of sex trafficking, forced labor and extortion that occurred in New York and North Carolina over nearly a decade. Authorities said the man targeted his daughter's friends and subjected them to physical abuse and sexual and psychological manipulation.

Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Lawrence Ray, 60, of Piscataway, New Jersey, was charged with multiple offenses, including extortion, sex trafficking and forced labor.

According to the indictment, Ray lived with some of the victims in a dormitory and afterward in an Upper East Side apartment and in North Carolina.

He used physical and psychological threats and coercion to indoctrinate and exploit the college students.

Prosecutors said he extorted about $1 million from at least five of the victims, forced them to perform unpaid labor and cause — through force, fraud and coercion — at least one victim to engage in prostitution.

Berman said Ray laundered the proceeds of his crimes through an internet domain business.

The offenses, for which Ray was accused, happened in Westchester County, New York City and Pinehurst, North Carolina.

At a press conference Tuesday, Berman would not name the college. However, the New York Times reported it was Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers and that the investigation was prompted by a New York magazine article in April.

A spokeswoman for Sarah Lawrence College said the institution just learned of the indictment of a former parent in the Southern District of New York.

"The charges contained in the indictment are serious, wide-ranging, disturbing and upsetting," said Patricia Pasquale. "As always the safety and well-being of our students and alumni is a priority for the college."

She said, in April 2019, New York magazine published a range of accusations about this former parent. At that time, the college undertook an internal investigation regarding the specific activities alleged in the article to have occurred on our campus in 2011; the investigation did not substantiate those specific claims.

"We have not been contacted by the Southern District of New York, but will of course cooperate in their investigation to the full extent of the law if invited to do so," Pasquale said.

Berman said Ray exploited and abused young women and men emotionally, physically and sexually for his own financial gain for nearly a decade.

"College is supposed to be a time of self-discovery and new-found independence," he said. "But as alleged, Lawrence Ray exploited that vulnerable time in his victims' lives through a course of conduct that shocks the conscience."

In 2010, prosecutors said, Ray, also known as Lawrence Grecco, moved into on-campus housing with his daughter and her male and female roommates at Sarah Lawrence College. He presented himself as a "father figure" and subjected them and other victims to sexual and psychological manipulation and physical abuse.

His tactics included sleep deprivation, psychological and sexual humiliation, verbal abuse, threats of physical violence, actual physical violence, threats of criminal legal actions, alienating the victims from their families and exploiting the victims' mental health vulnerabilities.

The manipulation allowed Ray to get false confessions from seven of the victims that they caused damage to him and his family and associates. He then extorted payment for those false damages.

Authorities said the victims made payments to Ray by draining their parents' savings, opening lines of credit, selling real estate ownership and, at Ray's direction, performing unpaid labor and earning money through prostitution.

Prosecutors said Ray forced one student to engage in commercial sex acts to pay damages to him that she did not actually owe.

Beginning when she was just a college student, she was groomed by Ray, police said, and he collected sexually explicit photos and other personal information that he then used to coerce her into prostitution.

He also used physical violence, tying her to a chair, placing a plastic bag over her head and nearly suffocating her, prosecutors said.

In total, Ray collected more than $500,000 in forced prostitution proceeds from this victim, according to the indictment.

Ray also forced three of the women students to work for free on a family member's property in North Carolina. He used psychological and physical abuse to force the three women to do extensive physical labor, sometimes in the middle of the night, for no pay.

Associates of Ray helped him collect and transfer the criminal proceeds, which he shared with at least two of them. He then laundered the proceeds through an internet domain business.

Ray is charged with the following: conspiracy to commit extortion, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; extortion, 20 years maximum; sex trafficking, maximum of life and mandatory minimum of 15 years; obtaining forced labor, 20 years maximum; forced labor trafficking, 20 years maximum; conspiracy to obtain forced labor, 20 years maximum; two counts of violating the Travel Act, each of which carries a maximum of 5 years, and money laundering, 20 years maximum.

Berman said, if you believe you are a victim of Ray, call the FBI at 1-800-CALL FBI and reference this case.

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