Ex-Citi Managing Director Pleads Guilty in Rape, Child Porn Case: BBG

A former Citigroup Inc. managing director pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually assaulting women as well as purchasing child pornography.

Edward Gene Smith entered his plea Tuesday in Manhattan federal court as part of a deal with prosecutors. Dressed in prison fatigues, he admitted that he intentionally drugged two women in order to have sex with them. Smith, 50, also confessed to buying and possessing pornographic images of minors.

Smith was first arrested in 2024 and accused of buying images and videos from a site that sells child pornography. Prosecutors in late December unsealed a superseding indictment charging him with drugging and raping women as well as sex-trafficking and obstruction of justice. At his plea hearing, Smith admitted forcing one of his victims to sign a document containing false statements in order to obstruct investigation of his crimes.

Prosecutors said Smith targeted vulnerable young women online, convincing them to meet him at his Central Park South apartment and other locations. He then drugged his victims without their consent, sexually abused them while they were incapacitated and recorded his actions on camera. According to the government, he shared one of these videos with a group via an encrypted messaging platform.