Man charged with sex-trafficking students after moving into daughter’s dormitory and targeting her friends

A father who allegedly turned his daughter’s university dormitory into a “cult” has been charged with extorting students out of $1m (£770,000) and forcing one of them into sex work.

Prosecutors said Lawrence Ray, 60, “used physical and psychological threats and coercion to indoctrinate and exploit a group” of students at Sarah Lawrence College in New York City.

The ex-convict moved into his daughter’s dormitory at the prestigious liberal arts college shortly after leaving prison, and is alleged to have convinced her friends they were indebted to him, subjected them to hours of gruelling "interrogations," and deprived them of food and sleep.

Ray was arrested on Tuesday following an investigation prompted by an article published last year in New York magazine under the headline “The stolen kids of Sarah Lawrence”.

He is alleged to have ensnared many of his victims while they were second-year students at the university. His first victims were his daughters' flatmates, US district attorney Geoffrey Berman said.

Ray moved into the students' on-campus housing in late 2010, presenting himself as a father figure to his daughter’s friends and conducting "therapy" sessions with them, according to an indictment filed in US District Court.

Prosecutors said he alienated his victims from their parents, convincing them they were "broken", and persuaded some of them to move into a Manhattan apartment.

“I didn’t want to go back home, and this was my alternative,” one of the students said. “Part of why I got in a cult at all was because I had no idea how one finds a place to live in New York.”

After gaining his victims' trust, Ray "turned on them, falsely accusing them of harming him by attempting to poison him or to deliberately damage his property," Mr Berman said.

Ray solicited false confessions – some of them recorded - from at least six victims and coerced them into making payments "they did not actually owe and could not possibly afford," the US attorney added.

He allegedly directed the students to drain money from their parents' savings accounts and forced some of them into unpaid labour at a family member's property in North Carolina. Others opened lines of credit or solicited contributions from others to help pay the false debts.

Ray “subjected his victims to almost unspeakable abuse,” Mr Berman said. He allegedly tied one a victim to a chair and placed a plastic bag over her head, almost suffocating her. Ray forced the same woman into prostitution and ultimately took $500,000 (£385,000) from her, processing the money an internet domain business.

“For nearly a decade, Lawrence Ray exploited and abused young women and men emotionally, physically, and sexually for his own financial gain,” Mr Berman said. “College is supposed to be a time of self-discovery and new-found independence. But as alleged, Lawrence Ray exploited that vulnerable time in his victims’ lives through a course of conduct that shocks the conscience.”

FBI assistant director William Sweeney Jr added: “There was no limit to the abuse Ray’s victims received, and there is no way of knowing the amount of damage he may have caused them in the years to come.”

Ray, who was arrested at his home in Piscaway, New Jersey, is due to appear in a Manhattan court charged with multiple offences including extortion, sex trafficking, and forced labour.

He faces decades in prison if convicted.

Ray has previously denied wrongdoing and claimed to New York magazine he was being “poisoned” as part of a conspiracy hatched by some of the students and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Ray’s evidence had helped to convict Kerik, once his best friend, of tax fraud charges for which he was jailed in 2009.

“Larry Ray is a psychotic con man who has victimised every friend he’s ever had,” said Kerik last year, denying any part in a conspiracy. “It’s been close to 20 years since I last heard from him, yet his reign of terror continues.”

Sarah Lawrence College said it had not been contacted by federal prosecutors but would cooperate "if invited to do so."

The university said it had investigated the allegations raised in the New York article but "did not substantiate those specific claims"

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