Peter Nygard, the 82-year-old founder of the Nygard International fashion empire, is standing trial in Toronto on charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement, but the trial is just one of many legal challenges for the fashion tycoon who still faces charges elsewhere in Canada and the United States.
Nygard is on trial for sexual assault and forcible confinement, but faces further charges in New ... [+]
Nygard’s trial in a Toronto court began Tuesday, where his charges include five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement (Nygard has pleaded not guilty and has denied all allegations made against him).
Nygard’s Toronto charges reportedly concern five women who have accused him of sexual assault—most of whom were in their 20s at the time of their alleged assaults, but one of whom was reportedly 16—in incidents that date back to the 1980s.
Prosecutors said Nygard offered to give these women a tour of his Toronto office building or job interviews, but the meetings would end in a private bedroom suite, which contained a bed, jacuzzi, doors without handles and locks controlled by Nygard.
Prosecutor Ana Serban accused Nygard of using his power and influence as a "wealthy fashion designer to lure and sexually assault young women.”
The five women involved in the Toronto charges are expected to testify during the trial, which will reportedly last up to six weeks.
Nygard founded Nygard International, his fashion empire that encompassed brands like Nygard Fashions, TanJay and Allison Daley, in 1967 in Canada. The corporation expanded into the United States by the next decade, and according to a Forbes report, was worth $1 billion and was the largest producer of women’s clothing in Canada by 2010. Nygard’s first in a series of legal issues related to alleged sex crimes reportedly occurred in 1968 when police in Winnipeg, Canada, charged him with a sexual offense, though the charges were dropped after the woman refused to testify. Nygard was reportedly charged with the rape of an 18-year-old girl in 1980, though these charges were also dropped because the victim refused to testify. More than a decade later, Nygard reportedly paid about $20,000 to settle three sexual harassment complaints from employees—which included allegedly adding skinny dipping to a meeting agenda, as well as grabbing himself and being in a “state of undress” while inviting female employees into his office. Nygard has been investigated by the FBI multiple times over allegations that he ran a sex trafficking ring: once in 2015 and in 2017, and after 10 women filed a class action suit against Nygard in February 2020 alleging he had raped them and maintained a sex trafficking ring, the FBI raided his New York offices later that month. Nygard denied the allegations but announced he would step down, and Nygard International filed for bankruptcy the following month. He was charged by Manhattan federal prosecutors in a nine-count indictment for sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and other crimes in December 2020. Nygard will be extradited to the United States to face his charges after his charges in Canada have been addressed, Canada’s then-minister of justice David Lametti tweeted in March 2022.
- That’s how many women have joined the class action suit filed against Nygard in New York for sexual assault and sex trafficking. According to the lawsuit, Nygard allegedly “recruited, lured and enticed young, impressionable and often impoverished children and women, with cash payments and false promises of lucrative modelling opportunities to assault, rape and sodomize them.”
Nygard has also faced other legal issues, some of which stem from a long-running feud with billionaire investor and Bahamas neighbor Louis Bacon. The feud reportedly began in 2007 when Nygard alleged Bacon’s repaving of a road that their houses shared created an excess of puddles when it rained. As their feud escalated, Nygard reportedly employed people to create fake news sites to spread stories accusing Bacon of being an insider trader, murdering his caretaker and being a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The men reportedly sued each other more than 25 times, with Bacon receiving a $203 million settlement in May after a New York court declared Nygard had engaged in a yearslong campaign to smear Bacon’s reputation.
Peter Nygard: Fashion mogul begins trial facing sexual assault charges (BBC)
Peter Nygard, Disgraced Fashion Designer, Faces Trial in Toronto (New York Times)
The Billionaire Battle in the Bahamas (Vanity Fair)