Manhattan fashion designer Peter Nygard has been arrested in Canada\u00a0for\u00a0sexually assaulting dozens of teenage girls and women, prosecutors said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The 79-year-old Finnish-born mogul was\u00a0indicted on nine counts of\u00a0racketeering, sex trafficking and related\u00a0charges involving a \u201cdecades-long pattern\u201d across the globe of coercing women into sex acts, according to Manhattan federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Some of his female victims claim they were forced to recruit other sexual partners for him \u2014 including girls as young as 14 years old \u2014 so he could have intercourse on a \u201cnear-daily basis,\u201d according to court documents filed in Canada.<\/p>\n
Nygard was nabbed in Winnipeg under the Extradition Act and appeared Tuesday afternoon in court, where he traded his usual flashy threads for a gray sweatshirt and prison pants, according to Candian\u00a0outlet CTV News.<\/p>\n
The former fashion exec is accused of using his international brand\u00a0to recruit and pay for sex with his victims, who were put on his payroll as \u201cmodels,\u201d \u201cassistants\u201d or communication specialists, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
These payments often covered their plastic surgery, immigration assistance, abortions, dental work and other living expenses, authorities said.<\/p>\n
He allegedly\u00a0referred to some of them as \u201cgirlfriends,\u201d requiring them to travel and stay with him at his palatial properties in California, the Bahamas and Canada.<\/p>\n\n
Prosecutors allege that Nygard would host\u00a0so-called \u201cPamper Parties,\u201d named for their free food, drinks and spa treatments,\u00a0at his Marina del Rey, Calif., and Bahamas estates to recruit more girls and young women into his orbit.<\/p>\n
Employees would allegedly take photos of the female guests and later show them to Nygard. If he approved of them, they went into a Rolodex of names that would be drawn from to attend future dinners, poker games and parties, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
He allegedly would use a \u201cgirlfriend\u201d or employee\u00a0at the parties to scout out a chosen victim \u00a0\u2014 who would then be forced into sexual activity and paid in cash, which could range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
If they were unwilling, the chosen guests \u2014 who were sometimes minors \u2014 were drugged in order to get them to perform his sexual demands, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Others were allegedly lured to a secluded area of the property where they were physically coerced or manipulated into participating.<\/p>\n
Nygard also is accused of hosting sexual \u201cswaps\u201d with other friends and business associates, who would bring a \u201cdate\u201d to trade for sex with one of his \u201cgirlfriends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Girlfriends\u2019 were not consulted in advance that they would be traded for sex and Nygard often pressured them to comply with swaps at his direction through manipulation, intimidation, degradation and threats,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
He also brought them for the same purpose to \u201cswingers\u2019 clubs\u201d in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles and Winnipeg \u2014 where he would pressure\u00a0the women into having sex with other men so he could sleep with someone else there, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Nygard kept his \u201cgirlfriends\u201d under constant surveillance, insisting they needed his permission to leave the properties \u2014 a rule enforced by his company\u2019s employees, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n He also allegedly used false promises of modeling opportunities, financial support and threats to coerce the women into sexual encounters.<\/p>\n His lawyer, Jay Prober, on Tuesday was denied a publication ban on the evidence presented in court \u2014 which he requested despite acknowledging it was \u201csomewhat moot\u201d due to the media attention surrounding his client.<\/p>\n \u201cTo say that it\u2019s already received some publicity is an understatement,\u201d Prober said, adding that it does not mean that it \u201cshould receive any more.\u201d<\/p>\n The ban would have only applied to Canadian media, allowing international outlets to still run the information.<\/p>\n Federal authorities raided Nygard\u2019s Manhattan headquarters earlier this year \u2014 less than two weeks after a lawsuit accused him of luring young women to his Bahamas estate with cash and modeling opportunities.<\/p>\n Fifty-seven women have joined the class-action suit \u2014 and several of them claim they were 14 or 15 years old when the mogul raped them.<\/p>\n In August, two of his sons sued him for hiring his girlfriend, a \u201cknown sex worker,\u201d to rape them as teens \u2014 allegedly telling one of them he\u00a0wanted the woman\u00a0to \u201cmake a man\u201d out of them.<\/p>\n The sons said they came forward to lend weight to Nygard\u2019s accusers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about backing up the other people who are being called liars,\u201d the older son \u2014 who was not identified \u2014 said in an\u00a0interview with CBC News.<\/p>\n\n Nygard has previously denied the allegations of the women and his sons.<\/p>\n His lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, declined comment.<\/p>\n His rep didn\u2019t respond to request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n Nygard stepped from the fashion brand he founded earlier this year, saying he was prioritizing the welfare of his employees, business partners and vendors.<\/p>\n He\u00a0founded Nygard International\u00a0as a sportswear manufacturer in 1967 \u2014 and now it has more than 170 stores in North America, according to its site.<\/p>\n\n Manhattan fashion designer Peter Nygard has been arrested in Canada\u00a0for\u00a0sexually assaulting dozens of teenage girls and women, prosecutors said Tuesday. The 79-year-old Finnish-born mogul was\u00a0indicted on nine counts of\u00a0racketeering, sex trafficking and related\u00a0charges involving a \u201cdecades-long pattern\u201d across the globe of coercing women into sex acts, according to Manhattan federal prosecutors. Some of his female …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[173],"tags":[4589],"yoast_head":"\n\r\n \t