By Patrick Hedlund
MANHATTAN -- A staffer at an international financial firm was arrested Friday for allegedly groping women Downtown and on the Upper East Side during a frightening sex attack spree.
Karl Vanderwoude, 26, of Park Slope, has been identified as the "well-dressed" groper behind four seperate attacks on women during a nearly two-month spree, police said. He has been charged with forcible touching and unlawful surveillance, police said.
Vanderwoude works as an operations coordinator for MVision Private Equity Advisers, a corporate financial advisory firm with offices on Madison Avenue, according to the company's website.
A staffer at the firm declined to comment.
The suspect, shown in surveillance footage wearing a dark suit, overcoat and gloves, struck four times over the past month-and-a-half, police said.
He initially struck on Feb. 25 at East 62nd Street and Park Avenue, where he grabbed a 33-year-old woman's inner thigh about 12:30 p.m., police said.
The next day, he grabbed a 31-year-old woman below the waist about 11:15 a.m., at Varick and King streets in Hudson Square, and the following day fondled a 19-year-old girl's buttocks at East 67th Street and Second Avenue about 1:30 p.m., police said.
Most recently, on March 30, the suspect approached a 22-year-old woman at Centre and Chambers streets shortly before 7:30 p.m. and put his hand between her legs, police said.
Vanderwoude was charged with unlawful surveillance for the March 30 attack, cops noted.
The groping spree led Councilwomen Jessica Lappin and Margaret Chin to hand out flyers in Chinatown Thursday warning women about the pattern.