Indian-American has accused revered Met Opera conductor James Levine of abusing him sexually when he was a teen

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An Indian-American man, along with two others, has accused Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine alleging sexual abuse. The Met, the largest performing arts organization in the country, has suspended Levine since the accusations surfaced Sunday, Dec. 3, the New York Times reported.

Ashok Pai, a young man of 16 in 1986, has claimed he was sexually abused starting that year, by Levine when he lived in Illinois near the Ravinia Festival where Levine was the music director. Pai, according to the Times, reported the abuse in 2016, to the Lake Forest Police Department in Illinois. The Times obtained a copy of the police report in which the name of the complainant is not mentioned. In the police report ” … the man said he was 15 when Mr. Levine held his hand in an “incredibly sensual” way. The following summer, the man told the police, Mr. Levine lay naked with him in bed and touched his penis — the beginning of years of sexual contact with Mr. Levine,” the Times reported.

According to Pai’s Facebook site, he is originally from Kenilworth, Illinois, and now lives in New York City. He is the founding partner at Ethical and Efficacious LLC. Prior to that he was the social director/concierge at ROX; a talent scout at Bennett Media Studio; event connector at Jack Hidary; promoter at pm lounge, and and Au bar.

Pai studied anthropology at Columbia University’s School of Arts and Sciences, according to his website. He studied ‘Postmodern Perspectives on Revolution and Social Change’ at University of Redlands, in Redlands, California.

The Ethical and Efficacious LLC website spells out Pai’s ideas, and carries photos of him posing with President Obama, among others.

“The thing that brought me to Columbia eons ago was the quandary posed by the answer Gandhi gave to the question of what made him saddest in life,” Pai says on the site. “He said its the hardness of heart of the well educated,” Pai continues and points to his “partial ancestral homeland, India” where there are “830 million people living on less than 50 cents a day.” For him the solution is “socially concerned, corporate responsible, capitalism…”

He describes his company as “a media and investment company that will bring politically progressive, content and advertising to network TV vis a vis barter syndication agreements.”

Among those who would be attracted to his type of company, Pai mentions as examples, “Amnesty International, Bernie Sanders, Trillium Investments, Domini Investments, Whole Foods, the Sierra Club, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and its membership, the ACLU, dissident leaders from abroad like Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, the National Organization of Women, Michael Moore, Aubrey Organics, unions.”