A disgraced Manhattan financier who preyed on teenage girls on social media (he raped a 14-year-old girl and gave her drugs until she overdosed) took a plea deal Tuesday and will serve 16 years in prison. Prosecutors announced that he will be imprisoned.
Michael Olson, 56, with a white beard and a tan prison-issue sweater, faces several charges in a shocking 75-count indictment unsealed in Manhattan Supreme Court last year.
When Judge Ann Scherzer asked if he intended to plead guilty to nine charges, including rape, criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child and aggravated patronizing of prostitution to a minor, the man murmured a weak “yes.” .
Olson, who was deemed unfit to stand trial in a sentence that was later reversed, wrote a letter to his family at one point during the case detailing his plan to commute to a treatment facility and avoid prosecution. He had to be careful not to “act too normal” or he would be sent back to Rikers Island.
“If the plan goes well, the advantage is that the charges against me will be dropped after six years,'' Manhattan Assistant District Attorney John Fuller said, recommending 25 years in prison, the patient wrote.
Olson's deviant plan was foiled in September when a judge ordered a new mental health evaluation and he was found to be mentally sane.
Olson, who worked for the real estate-oriented investment firm Dwight Mortgage Trust, began luring 14-year-old girls every week on Instagram starting last December, drugging them and raping them in hotel rooms in Queens and Manhattan. was accused of doing so. 2022.
The financial executive was arrested on May 26, 2023, when he began overdosing in a Manhattan hotel room, where emergency workers found numerous drugs, including ketamine, cocaine and Xanax, prosecutors said.
Olson was released on $1 million bail, but prosecutors say he is notorious for continuing to contact underage girls online and faces dozens of additional charges.
The crazy creep first targeted a 14-year-old girl who posted on Instagram that she couldn't afford to buy clothes.
Over the next few months, he admitted to paying the girl $700 a week in exchange for sex at a Big Apple hotel and raping her several times, prosecutors said.
The pervert also traveled with the child on trips to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami, using her first and last name to purchase boarding passes and pretending to be her daughter, according to the indictment.
“Michael Olson targeted, recruited, manipulated, and planned to sexually assault young girls, raping at least one child each week in Manhattan,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. said.
“His horrific actions were the very definition of predatory behavior. Thank you to my office's Human Trafficking Unit for putting a stop to it.”
Bragg's office said Olson will have to serve up to 15 years of supervised release after he is released from his 16-year sentence.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said Olson “feels miserable about what happened” and that it has ruined his life.
“Like everyone else, he accepted the plea because he was guilty,” Lichtman said outside court.
Olson is scheduled to be sentenced on February 4, 2025.
