(Toronto) Court documents show that Ontario billionaire Frank Stronach is accused of sexually assaulting seven people from 1977 until last February, which would bring the number of alleged victims to 10.
Court documents filed Friday provide additional information about the eight new charges police filed against Mr. Stronach on Wednesday.
The 91-year-old was first arrested in early June on five sex-related charges involving three different complainants. Peel Regional Police in the Toronto suburb of Peel said Wednesday that additional alleged victims had subsequently come forward.
Court documents filed at the Brampton courthouse shed more light on these latest charges, which stem from events that allegedly occurred in and around Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario.
The Ontario billionaire is accused of attempted rape and indecent assault of a woman between June 1977 and January 1978. He is also accused of sexually assaulting six other people in the 1980s, 1990s, early 2000s and earlier this year, according to court documents.
The five charges filed in early June related to alleged crimes dating back to the 1980s and up to 2023.
His lawyer, Brian Greenspan, has already indicated that his client denies all the accusations and that he intends to “vigorously” clear his name.
“He spent his life getting involved for the good of his community and the good of Canadian industry,” wrote Mr.e Greenspan said in a statement this week that Mr. Stronach planned to continue that work.
The accused is due to appear in the Brampton courthouse on July 8.
An SME that became a giant
Frank Stronach, born in Austria in 1932, became one of Canada’s richest people by creating Magna in his garage in 1957; he then made it one of the largest suppliers of automobile parts in the world.
He also founded The Stronach Group, a horse racing company, and Stronach International in 2018, a company focused on organic food and “electric micromobility.”
Mr Stronach stepped down as Magna chairman in 2011 and founded his own political party in his native Austria the following year.
He is the father of former Canadian politician Belinda Stronach, who was a Conservative MP before crossing the floor of the House of Commons to join the Liberals in 2005.
In 2018, Frank Stronach filed a $500 million-plus lawsuit against his daughter, two grandchildren, and a former business partner, alleging they mismanaged the family’s assets and conspired to take control of them. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2020, splitting the family fortune between two factions.