Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been found guilty of sexual assault
The court handed down a verdict – guilty on most counts.
A Canadian jury has found former fashion mogul Peter Nygard guilty of sexual assault after a six-week trial. Nygard, 82, used his status to assault several women in a series of incidents from the late 1980s to 2005. Of the five counts of sexual assault, he was acquitted on one and found guilty on four. Nygard was also acquitted of one count of forcible confinement.
Nygard did not respond to the verdict, and his attorney Brian Greenspan said he is considering an appeal.
Who is this guy?
Peter Nygård is a well-known Canadian fashion magnate. In 1967, he founded Nygård International, a fashion clothing company in Winnipeg. His fortune was estimated at US$ 700 million.
In 2020, Nygard was charged with years of sex trafficking, rape and racketeering after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation searched his company's New York offices. In October 2021, Toronto police charged Nygard with sexual assault and forcible confinement based on several incidents.
What is he being tried for and where is he being tried?
From February 2019 to today, several dozen women have joined class action lawsuits against Nygard in courts in Canada and the United States. Many of them were under the age of 16 at the time of the crimes. Nygard's two sons have also come forward with allegations against the businessman, saying their father told one of his sex workers to rape them.
Nygard has been held in a Canadian prison since December 2020 — while multiple trials in various cases are ongoing. Next year, there will be a hearing in Montreal, followed by a hearing on assault and imprisonment charges in Winnipeg.
Once all criminal proceedings in Canada are completed, Nygard will be extradited to the U.S., where authorities say he was involved in a multi-year criminal scheme involving at least a dozen victims around the world. He is currently contesting that extradition.
