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Lawyer with home in Paoli charged with sex tourism

An international business lawyer has been charged with two counts of sex tourism for engaging in an eight-year sexual relationship with a young ballet dancer he met in Russia, federal authorities announced yesterday.

An international business lawyer has been charged with two counts of sex tourism for engaging in an eight-year sexual relationship with a young ballet dancer he met in Russia, federal authorities announced yesterday.

Kenneth Schneider, 45, who maintains a home in Paoli, was arrested Saturday in Cyprus, where he had allegedly fled to avoid prosecution. The indictment was returned Jan. 14 and unsealed yesterday.

Schneider is president and chief executive officer of Aurience Ltd., a mergers and acquisitions firm based in London.

He is also the founder of the Apogee Foundation, which, according to its Web site, is a philanthropic arts group that funds young performing artists.

"According to the indictment, the defendant used his wealth and position as a supporter of the arts to victimize a young dancer," said U.S. Attorney Michael Levy. "The defendant allegedly betrayed the trust of a young boy and his family by taking the opportunity to molest the boy."

"Mr. Schneider will be back to defend himself against these false allegations," said his attorney, Joseph J. McHale. He declined to comment further.

According to the indictment, Schneider was working as a legal consultant in Moscow in 1998 when he met a 12-year-old boy who was a student at the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy.

The boy, identified in the indictment by his initials, had been forced to leave the academy because his parents could not afford to pay the tuition.

Schneider offered to pay for the boy's schooling and proposed to the parents that the child live with him in his Moscow apartment. The parents agreed.

Soon afterward, Scheider began "grooming" the boy for sexual contact by touching and kissing him and buying him gifts, according to the indictment. Eventually, Schneider engaged in intercourse with the boy, the indictment states.

In 2001, Schneider brought the boy to Philadelphia to study for the summer at the Rock School for Dance Education. Schneider and the boy, then 15, returned to Russia, where the sexual relationship continued, according to the indictment.

The dancer, now 24, lives with his wife, whom he met while studying at the University of the Arts.

A civil suit filed in Philadelphia by the dancer in 2007 prompted a federal investigation, Levy said.

It claims Schneider created the Apogee Foundation in order to make illicit contact with young male performers in the former Soviet Union.

Schneider promised to use the foundation's influence to make the boy a star, according to the suit.

When the dancer began a relationship with his future wife, Schneider threatened to have him deported back to Russia and "his hopes of any career would be ruined," the civil suit states.

As a result of his relationship with Schneider, the dancer suffered "inconsolable shame and depression," says the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

The suit is still pending.

Schneider, who is scheduled for an extradition hearing today in Cyprus, is charged in the federal indictment with traveling for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor and transporting a person for criminal sexual conduct.

The dancer's attorney, Ken Richmond, said his client continues to suffer "inescapable embarrassment and confusion" now that the case has become public.