EXCLUSIVE: Man speaks out about college sex cult mastermind living in his apartment

CeFaan Kim Image
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Man speaks out about college sex cult mastermind living in his apartment
CeFaan Kim has the details.

UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Lee Chen says it was a business partnership that brought him and Lawrence Ray together - the man Federal prosecutors say was the mastermind behind a sex cult.

The cult allegedly started when Ray moved into his daughter's Sarah Lawrence college dorm room in 2010, then a year later moved into Chen's Upper East Side condo.

Chen says he felt bad for Ray, going through a divorce, so he let him crash on his couch - but things got strange.

"He started screaming at the top of his lungs - comments about how I was not loved by my parents," Chen says.

Prosecutors describe a similar pattern of physical and psychological abuse and manipulation.

Chen thought Ray would stay for a few days or weeks but says it took him three and a half years to evict Ray. Along the way, Chen says he witnessed group sex.

"He grabbed the male student behind the neck and forcibly pulled him to my bedroom. On his way out he jabbed me in the ribs and said 'she's waiting for you.' So as I turn around she came over and performed a sex act on me," Chen said.

Chen says the female student was Ray's own girlfriend. The male student was Daniel Levin, who spoke with ABC last year.

"He put me in a lot of situations that involved me being sexual in ways that I wouldn't have chosen," Levin said.

Prosecutors say the 60-year-old extorted a total of one million dollars from five different victims over a decade.

Chen says he faced blackmail too.

"If I didn't leave my own home immediately he would have one or both of those girls call the police and tell them that I molested them sexually," Chen said.

Once he says he came home and Ray wasn't there.

Meanwhile, Chen believes Ray's daughter, who also lived in his condo was being manipulated by Ray too and turned against her mother.

Ray has pleaded not guilty. He's being held without bail and is due back in court on Wednesday.

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