Music school big admits bid to buy kid sex from pimp
THE FOUNDER of a Queens music school who used a pimp to try to buy sex from girls as young as 8 has pleaded guilty to federal sex-trafficking charges.
Oliver Sohngen, 53, quietly pleaded to the charges Thursday before Judge Ronald Ellis in Federal Court in Manhattan, records show. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 27.
Sohngen (inset), founder of the Long Island City Academy of Music, was arrested May 16, after authorities found a series of incriminating text messages on the phone of a Bronx-based pimp.
Federal prosecutors said Sohngen’s victims ranged in age from 8 to 17. Sohngen, 53, is accused of having sexual contact with two girls, ages 15 and 17. Prosecutors said he tried to buy sex from three other girls, ages 8, 11 and 13.
The married father of two — one of them an 8-year-old girl — was charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and other charges. He faces imprisonment for the rest of his life.
From March through November 2013, Sohngen, using the aliases “Helmuth Moss” and “Stephen Weierbach,” exchanged texts with a pimp to buy sex from children, said authorities in the joint federal-NYPD investigation.
The pimp took suggestive photos of the minors and posted them on Backpage.com, court papers said.
Sohngen and the unidentified pimp negotiated the price for sex acts, and used code to describe the girls — inverting the numbers for their ages for example.
On Oct. 18, 2013,Sohngen allegedly offered $800 for sex acts with an 8-yearold put forward by the pimp. When the pimp said he could give Sohngen the 8-year-old and a 13-year-old for $1,600, Sohngen allegedly agreed, saying “I know a hotel, but she needs to dress,” the feds claim. When the pimp asked “Dress how,” Sohngen replied “Old,” according to the criminal complaint. “When your done. Can you drop them off at chuck e cheese. That where the family thinks they are going,” the pimp wrote. Ultimately, the pimp was unable to deliver the kids. Sohngen, who moved to the city with dreams of performing in the Metropolitan Opera, was undone by the pimp, who sang to investigators. They said they also obtained the pimp’s phone, which held the text messages.
It’s unclear what led investigators to the pimp, but authorities then arranged for an undercover sting of Sohngen.
From November 2015 to January 2016, Sohngen thought he was chatting with a 15-year-old, but actually it was an undercover cop posing as a teen.
Sohngen tried to meet up with her “in order to engage in oral sex and other sexual contact,” officials said, and tried to get her to agree that she was 18.
“I like older, just want to make sure you like younger,” the undercover cop wrote.
“I can’t answer that in writing,” Sohngen replied. “Lets agree ure 18 . . .”
He was arrested, and a spokesman for the city Department of Education said in May the contract with Sohngen’s 7-year-old school organization had been canceled.
Sohngen’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.