FARGO (KVRR-KFGO) – Records obtained by KFGO News from the North Dakota School Boards Association (NDSBA) show that Ray Holmberg, the former State Senator indicted last week on federal charges of child sex tourism and child pornography, traveled to Europe multiple times as part of a program funded by appropriations from the state legislature.

Holmberg is accused of repeatedly traveling to Prague in the Czech Republic between June 2011 and November 2016 for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts with a minor.

At least three of the multiple trips Holmberg traveled on as part of the North Dakota delegation for the Global Bridges educational exchange program included Prague as either the arrival or departure city in his itinerary. One of those trips, in July of 2011, fell within the date range of the federal indictment.

Global Bridges is a nonprofit organization based in Berlin. The exchange program has funded as part of the Department of Public Instruction’s appropriations bill in the North Dakota Legislature for over a decade.

Jon Martinson was the director of the program for the NDSBA. He characterized the funding as a ”pass-though grant” to Global Bridges via the NDSBA.

The NDSBA says the association is the fiscal agent for the program, without any itinerary or attendee approval authority.