NC man whose charity supported Nepali orphans is accused of sex with a minor in Nepal

A Davidson man who founded a charity supporting Nepali orphans was indicted by a federal grand jury on allegations of having sex with a minor while on travel in Nepal, according to federal court records filed Tuesday.

Michael Hess, 73, engaged in illicit sexual conduct out of the country sometime between March 2005 and July 2008, according to a press release from the United States Department of Justice. The FBI investigated him.

If convicted, Hess could face up to 30 years in prison.

Hess — nicknamed “Papa” — founded Nepal Orphans Home, a Davidson-based nonprofit organization that supported the welfare and wellbeing of orphaned or abandoned children in Nepal, in March 2005, according to its now-defunct website.

The organization supported the work of Papa’s House, which operated several orphanages in Nepal. It stopped offering residential care in the wake of a 2023 mandate from Nepal’s National Child Rights Council, but continued to provide educational and family-based support services.

The charity shuttered at the end of 2025, granting full autonomy to its Nepali counterpart, Papa’s House NGO, according to the organization’s website at the time.

Hess’ brother, Peter Hess, is a professor emeritus of economics at Davidson College and served as the president of Nepal Orphans Home’s board of directors from its inception to its closing. He published a book about his brother’s work in February.

In a 2011 article about protecting children from predatory volunteers in The New Humanitarian, Michael Hess said Papa’s House’s sister program, Volunteer Nepal — which shut down in 2022 — did not vet the volunteers it paired with Nepali organizations. Instead, he cited informal systems that were in place to note any “red flags.”