FASHION MOGUL ARRESTED
Nygard held on U.S. sex charges
Peter Nygard, the Canadian fashion mogul who wore his grey hair long and slicked back, his V- necks cut low and his cravats tied loosely, the man who appeared with supermodels on his arm and held bashes at “Nygard Cay” in the Bahamas, entered a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday with chains around his wrists and ankles, looking dishevelled, his hair swept up in a messy bun, wearing a grey sweater and mintgreen pants.
Nygard, 79, was arrested by the RCMP on Monday, following an extradition request from the United States, where he faces a nine- count indictment on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and “related crimes arising out of a decades-long pattern of criminal conduct involving at least dozens of victims in the United States, the Bahamas, and Canada, among other locations,” said a U.S. Justice Department statement, released Tuesday.
“( Nygard) used the Nygard Group's influence, as well as its employees, funds, and other resources, to recruit and maintain adult and minor-aged female victims for (his) sexual gratification and the sexual gratification of his friends and business associates,” the statement says.
The allegations against the man behind Nygard International have not been proven in court.
On Tuesday, his lawyer, Jay Prober, was fighting to have the details of the case subject to a publication ban, arguing it would jeopardize Nygard's right to a fair trial in the United States.
The judge in the extradition hearing disagreed, declining a publication ban.
The case has been adjourned until Jan. 13, though Prober said he would seek bail before then.
Since at least 1980, Nygard has dodged rape and sexual harassment accusations, faced lawsuits over his tax bills and was engaged in a bizarre dispute with his billionaire neighbour in the Bahamas. But since the opening days of 2020, Nygard's fashion empire and personal life began unravelling.
Born in Finland in 1941, Nygard's family moved to Manitoba in 1952. Since he left Eaton's in the late 1960s, Nygard worked to build a fast-fashion empire. His company had a flagship store in Manhattan, offices in New York, warehouses in Winnipeg, Toronto and California, and manufacturing facilities around the world.
Once a man who hosted lavish parties at his mansions in California and Bahamas — his Bahamian property was styled as a Mayan temple, featuring a fake volcano and an aquarium filled with topless women in mermaid tails, according to The New York Times — who hosted Oprah Winfrey, Prince Andrew, Michael Jackson and other celebrities over the years, Nygard now faces a jail sentence in the Bahamas over contempt of court charges.
Earlier this year, after control of his retail empire was taken out of Nygard's hands, his companies put into receivership, and warehouses in Toronto and Winnipeg put up for sale, Nygard pleaded with a judge not to sell a corporate building in Winnipeg because he had been living in it. The judge dismissed that claim for lack of evidence, other than a picture of a bed. CBC reported in June that Nygard was living at his cottage at Falcon Lake, Man.
There have been sex assault accusations against the fashion mogul since at least 1980, when he was charged with rape of an 18-year-old in Winnipeg, charges that were later dropped. But the classaction lawsuit in the U. S., filed in February and involving 57 women — 18 of them Canadian — precipitated the latest and most dramatic fall for a man who, the indictment says, used violence, intimidation and bribery, as well as the wealth and influence of his fashion empire, to lure impressionable and impoverished victims and avoid accountability for decades.
“We are encouraged that a small measure of justice for Peter Nygard is finally developing,” Greg G. Gutzler, a lawyer for the women, said in a statement Tuesday regarding Nygard's arrest. “We are relieved that some measure of accountability is hopefully forthcoming, but we would be remiss if we did not state that this is something that should have been done decades ago.”
Those weren't the only lawsuits filed against Nygard in 2020. Two separate lawsuits in January allege sexual assault and, in August, two of Nygard's sons filed a lawsuit claiming he had his girlfriend rape them 14 years apart. His lawyer, Jay Prober, said the allegations are “completely false.”