Canadian Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Arrested on US Sex Trafficking Charges Involving Dozens of Women

Peter Nygard, a Canadian fashion retailer, has been indicted on allegations he trafficked and sexually assaulted dozens of women and girls for years, federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced Tuesday. In the nine-count indictment out of the Southern District of New York, Nygard, 79, is also accused of racketeering and other crimes in a “decades-long pattern of criminal conduct” within the United States, the Bahamas and Canada, according to prosecutors.

He was taken into custody in Winnipeg Monday night under an extradition treaty, the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan said in a statement. Prosecutors allege Nygard used his position in the fashion world and his employees to “recruit and maintain adult and minor-aged female victims” over a 25-year span for his own sexual purposes and those of his associates. Prosecutors note that many of these women and girls came from a lower socioeconomic background and in some cases had histories of abuse. Nygard is accused of sexually assaulting some of these women and girls, while others were assaulted or drugged by his associates “to ensure their compliance with his sexual demand.” Nygard’s lawyer in New York, Elkan Abramowitz, declined to comment on the charges to The New York Times.

In February 2020, the Times investigated Nygard’s longtime reputation as a playboy, noting he once described the young women he surrounded himself with as “the source of youth.” That month, he had stepped down from Nygard International after federal agents raided his Los Angeles home and New York corporate headquarters in New York as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual assault that had been investigated for months. Four women interviewed by the task force focusing on Nygard’s case were also plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the fashion retailed filed in February in New York. The suit was brought by 10 women, who accused him of sex trafficking and other sexual misconduct.

The FBI previously investigated Nygard in 2015 and 2017 on allegations of sex trafficking as well as as the Department of Homeland Security for nine months beginning in 2016. Neither investigation led to charges. In an investigation by the Times, nine women in Canada and California, mostly former employees, have previously sued Nygard or reported him to the police since 1980, alleging sexual harassment or assault. In interviews with the paper, nine former employees said that he had raped them, touched them inappropriately or proposed sex.