“He used his power and his status to attack young women”: the trial of former fashion mogul Peter Nygard opened Tuesday in Toronto with these words from the prosecutor, two years after his first indictment for crimes sex crimes.
It is the first of several trials the 82-year-old faces in Canada and the United States, where he is accused of dozens of sex crimes committed over several decades.
“In Nygard’s Toronto offices, behind the walls and appearance of success and power, there is a suite with a huge bedroom, a bar and doors, doors without handles and automatic locks controlled by Peter Nygard,” insisted prosecutor Ana Serban.
She described “traumatized” victims who were “under threat of having their careers destroyed if they did not comply.” Some took more than five years to be able to speak, she said.
Four of the five complainants were in their twenties and the last was only 16 at the time of the events. Peter Nygard did not hesitate to offer them a job or make them promise a career to attract them to his offices in Toronto, detailed the prosecutor.
A contractor who renovated the premises and a police officer described to the court the luxurious and secure layout of this space “requiring an access code” to enter.
Founder of one of Canada’s biggest clothing brands, Nygard International, the octogenarian pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and forcible incarceration last week.
American justice also wishes to try him for accusations of rape of dozens of women and young girls, extortion and human trafficking between 1990 and 2020.
If Peter Nygard accepted his extradition to the United States, he must first be tried in three Canadian provinces — Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba.
Entering the Toronto courtroom in a wheelchair, Peter Nygard, gray hair tied in a bun, wore a dark suit and white shirt. He looked weakened and was very pale, a far cry from the many photos of him showing him with blond hair and a tanned complexion.
Sexual requirements
An imposing fashion figure who once dined with Queen Elizabeth II and rubbed shoulders with Hollywood stars, the octogenarian has often boasted of his journey as a young immigrant who managed to rise to the head of an empire.
The magazine Canadian Business has, in the past, valued Peter Nygard’s assets at $850 million.
However, his company filed for bankruptcy protection shortly after the FBI and police raided its Manhattan headquarters in 2020.
In the United States, dozens of women also accuse him of having manipulated and lured them to his luxurious properties, particularly in the Bahamas, under the pretext of lucrative modeling opportunities.
Several, from poor economic backgrounds and already victims of abuse, alleged that he paid for plastic surgeries, abortions and child support with his company money.
US prosecutors say company funds were also used to organize dinners, poker games and parties during which minors were drugged and women were assaulted if they did not comply with his sexual demands.
“Peter Nygard would come in and just pick a girl, mostly drunk,” Stephen Feralio, his personal videographer, told Canadian public television in 2021.
His trial in Toronto is expected to last at least six weeks. The one in Quebec is not planned before spring 2024.