Canadian fashion mogul Nygard sentenced to 11 years in prison for sexual assault | kbnmart

Peter Nygard, the founder of one of Canada’s largest clothing brands, was sentenced Monday to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting women and a girl in Toronto.

He could be released in about six and a half years, including time served in pretrial detention, or sooner if he is granted parole.

“Nygard, 83, is a Canadian success story turned into a disaster,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein said in sentencing.

He described him as a “sexual predator,” adding that “Mr. Nygard used his wealth, power and position to prey on his victims.”

Nygard showed no reaction to the decision, wearing a dark jacket and a makeshift mask to protect his eyes in court.

His attorney, Jerry Wiebe, said he plans to appeal the verdict while continuing to “maintain his innocence” in several other criminal cases pending against him.

Outside the Toronto courthouse, a spokesperson for one of Nygard’s victims, whose identity has been protected by court order, read a statement describing a sense of closure after “four years of hell.”

“We did this to ensure that every victim of sexual assault looks back on this trial feeling empowered and confident to come forward and not be threatened by social status or money,” the statement said.

Prosecutor Neville Golwala praised the four defendants in the case for going through a difficult criminal justice process that he said “required another level of courage”.

Nygard was convicted in November 2023 of using his position as president of one of Canada’s largest women’s apparel manufacturers to sexually assault three women and a 16-year-old girl between 1988 and 2005.

His trial heard he invited them to his lavish Canadian offices on the pretext of lucrative modelling or other opportunities, only to find them trapped in an upstairs bedroom with a hot tub where he exploited them.

The case marked a stunning downfall for a man who once sold shirts and pants in department stores and oversaw 170 of his own eponymous stores in Canada and the United States.

He also threw expensive parties at his homes in the Bahamas — a Mayan-inspired playground featuring fake volcanoes — and Los Angeles.

Prosecutors had called for Nygard to be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison, while the defense urged his release within two years, citing his advanced age and deteriorating health.

In his sentencing decision, the judge noted the “high level of violence, humiliation and duration of these sexual assaults, as well as the manipulations used to bring the victims into his private apartment” in Toronto.

The judge noted that Nygard had not moderated his behavior over the years.

At the height of his success, Nygaard dined with Queen Elizabeth II and mingled with political leaders and Hollywood stars.

He has long boasted of his rise from humble beginnings as a young Finnish immigrant who built a fashion empire and amassed a personal fortune worth C$850 million (US$620 million).

But all that came crashing down in 2020 when police raided his company’s Manhattan headquarters, and his company filed for bankruptcy protection shortly after.

His arrest in Canada the same year came after a whistleblower released footage of a 17-year-old dancing on a stripper pole aboard Nygard’s private Boeing 727 jet.

One of his Canadian accusers called Nygard “the monster.”

In the United States, prosecutors accuse Nygard of using company funds to hold “pamper parties” where underage girls were drugged and the women assaulted if they did not comply with his sexual demands.

They sought to extradite him to the United States.

Nygard still faces trials on separate charges in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Quebec.