Edward Gene Smith, a former senior executive at major financial institutions, was sentenced on July 28 by U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer to 30 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women, receipt of child pornography, and obstruction of justice. The sentencing was announced by United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton.
According to court documents and statements made during public proceedings, Smith’s offenses occurred between approximately 2015 and June 2024 while he held executive roles in the banking sector. He planned to drug, attempted to drug, or successfully drugged numerous women with the intent to incapacitate them for sexual activity. In several cases, he surreptitiously recorded videos or took photographs of his criminal acts.
Smith was found guilty of raping one victim in April 2023 at his Central Park South residence after giving her an alcoholic beverage laced with Klonopin without her knowledge. While she was unconscious, he physically restrained and raped her, recorded the assault on video, and shared it via an encrypted messaging platform dedicated to exploitative content involving incapacitated women.
Between 2019 and 2020, Smith met another victim who was a college student at the time. He persuaded her to move to New York City where he controlled various aspects of her life and repeatedly drugged and assaulted her over several months using coercion and force. In fall 2021, Smith communicated with a third victim who was then seventeen years old; he solicited explicit photos from her before she turned eighteen and later brought her to New York City where he attempted again to drug her before physically assaulting her.
The investigation also revealed that between approximately 2012 and June 2024 Smith received via the internet thousands of files depicting children being sexually abused. After law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence in August 2024 uncovering this material on his devices, Smith paid one victim thousands of dollars in an attempt to have them sign a false document obstructing the investigation; similar efforts were made with others as well.
In addition to imprisonment, Smith has been sentenced to lifetime supervised release. Clayton said, “Edward Gene Smith is a sexual predator and a serial rapist… Every New York family is safer with the defendant off the streets.” The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Remy Grosbard, Rita Maxwell, Daniel Richenthal, Joe Zabel from the General Crimes Unit with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Olivia Sebade.