Fashion Designer Peter Nygard, 82, Found Guilty Of Four Counts Of Sexual Assault

On Sunday, a Toronto jury convicted Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard of four counts of sexual assault.

This marks his first conviction after he has faced numerous accusations over several decades.

Current cases have accused the designer of exploiting his power and influence to sexually abuse young women and teenage girls.

Nygard was found guilty on four counts of sexual assault when accused of attacks on five victims, aged 16 to 28, between the years of the late 1980s and 2005.

After three days of deliberation in the six-week trial, Nygard was found not guilty of one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.

The 82-year-old founder of Nygard International, a Canadian fashion company once valued at $1 billion, faces a potential maximum sentence of ten years in prison for each conviction. He is expected to be sentenced later this month.

Canadian prosecutors claim that Nygard enticed women to his private office suite under false pretenses, such as job interviews or building tours, then would proceed to sexually assault them.

They allege that his office suite had a jacuzzi, bed, doors that lacked handles and locks that were controlled solely by Nygard. 

Throughout the trial, Nygard asserted that he suffered from short-term memory loss, which hindered his ability to recall critical details. He maintained that he did not recognize all but one of the victims and claimed that records had been destroyed in a fire and a hacking incident, impeding his recollection of the relevant periods.

In 1968, Nygard faced allegations of sexual abuse when Winnipeg police filed a sex crime charge against him. The case was dropped due to the victim’s refusal to testify.

In 1980, he was charged with rape of an 18-year-old who also declined to cooperate with law enforcement, and the case was closed. 

Since 2015, the FBI has conducted at least three investigations into allegations of Nygard’s involvement in a sex trafficking ring. In 2020, Nygard stepped down from his position at Nygard International amid an FBI probe, and the company filed for bankruptcy a month later.

Nygard also faces sex crime charges in Montreal and Winnipeg for sex trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy, among others. He is set to be extradited to New York when the Canadian trials conclude. He will face a nine-count federal indictment.