Nygard exits company following FBI raids in New York


"Pamper Parties" at Nygard's Lavish Bahamas Estate
 

Peter Nygard is stepping down from the company he forged for more than a half-century, amid mounting allegations the Winnipeg fashion mogul has run a decades-long sex-trafficking ring with the complicity of countless business associates.

On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and detectives from the New York Police Department raided Nygard's corporate headquarters in Times Square.

By the end of the day, Nygard announced — through a spokesman — he would step down from the privately-owned clothing firm with corporate offices in Winnipeg, New York, and Toronto.

Nygard, 78, has been under investigation for at least five months by a joint child-exploitation task force of the FBI and the NYPD, according to a report by the New York Times. The investigation is overseen by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Nygard, speaking through his lawyers, has repeatedly maintained his innocence.

The U.S. criminal probe went public as Nygard finds himself ensnared by mounting rape allegations.

Ten women — many of them under the age of 18 at the time of the alleged offences — accused Nygard of drugging, assaulting, raping and sodomizing them in a class-action lawsuit filed Feb. 13 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Dozens more women have since approached the firm handling the class-action lawsuit, also claiming Nygard raped them. The allegations span four decades and three continents, dating to 1977. More than 20 are Canadians, and there is at least one accuser from Winnipeg.

Gutzler said the Nygard case is tied to the broader #MeToo movement, which helped lead to the criminal prosecution of Weinstein.

On Monday, the lawyer said he believes Nygard's alleged conduct was an open secret from Winnipeg to Toronto to Los Angeles to New York fashion circles to the Bahamas. winnipegfreepress.com

About Nyguard:
NYGÅRD International is a privately-held fashion company founded in 1967 by Peter Nygård. Its steadily growing retail division consists of over 170 dedicated stores in North America, over 6,000 department store shop-in-shops worldwide, an online store (www.nygard.com) and over 1 million square feet of North American distribution space which ships over 20 million garments annually.