Queens Music School Teacher Hit With Child Sex Charges

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — The founder of the Long Island City Academy of Music has been charged with trying to have sex with children as young as 8-years-old.

Oliver Sohngen, who used the aliases "Helmuth Moss" and "Stephen Weierbach," contacted a man identified by prosecutors only as CC-1 in 2013 and tried to buy sex acts with children aged between eight and 17, according to a criminal complaint.

Sohngen had sex with two minors, aged 15 and 17, who were solicited by CC-1, according to the complaint.

Investigators said that children were taken to CC-1's home on Davidson Avenue in The Bronx where CC-1 took sexually suggestive photos of them. The photos, which were posted on Backpage.com, were used in ads offering to sell victims for sex acts, the complaint said.

Sohngen was identified following the arrest of CC-1 in November 2013. Numerous victims of CC-1 said they had engaged in sexual acts with Sohngen after investigators showed them a photo of the man, the complaint said.

Text messages between Sohngen and CC-1 were also recovered during the investigation, the complaint said.

Sohngen was charged with sex trafficking conspiracy, attempted sex trafficking and sex trafficking.

He told Huffington Post that he was born in Germany and moved to the U.S. in 1990 to study music in Cleveland. He founded the Long Island City Academy of Music in 2010.

The Long Island City Academy of Music, which is on 23rd St., did not respond to requests for comment.

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