One of Canada’s most high-profile former fashion industry leaders has received another major guilty verdict in a long-running series of sexual assault cases that have spanned decades and two countries. On Monday, 84-year-old Peter Nygard, once the head of global apparel giant Nygard International, was found guilty of sexual assault and forcible confinement by a Montreal judge, in a case connected to alleged crimes committed in the city during the 1990s, Canadian national media has confirmed.
The conviction marked an unexpected turn in the proceedings: Nygard’s legal team confirmed he would not present any defensive evidence on the first day of the scheduled 10-day trial. The charges against Nygard in this Quebec case were originally laid by provincial prosecutors back in 2022.
This is not the first conviction the 84-year-old has faced in recent years. In 2024, he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting four different women in Toronto between the late 1980s and 2005. Earlier this year, Ontario’s appellate court rejected his attempt to overturn that conviction, leaving the original sentence intact.
Nygard’s legal history also includes other unresolved or dismissed charges: last year, a judge in Winnipeg, Manitoba stayed additional historical sexual assault charges connected to Nygard, ruling that police failures to preserve older investigative records violated his constitutional right to a fair trial. The BBC has reached out to Nygard’s current legal representation for additional comment on the new Montreal conviction, but has not yet received a response.
The allegations against Nygard stretch back decades, with prosecutors and accusers claiming the former mogul used his substantial wealth, industry influence, and corporate power to carry out a systematic pattern of sexual assault and sex trafficking of women across both Canada and the United States during his tenure leading Nygard International. The corporate empire collapsed in 2020: just weeks after U.S. law enforcement raided the company’s New York headquarters, Nygard stepped down as board chairman, and the firm filed for bankruptcy shortly after.
Once all current Canadian legal proceedings against Nygard are finalized, U.S. authorities have confirmed they intend to extradite him to face additional charges south of the border. American prosecutors allege Nygard engaged in a 30-year pattern of criminal sexual misconduct that victimized at least 12 people across multiple countries. According to Canadian public broadcaster Radio-Canada, Nygard’s lawyer confirmed Monday that the former fashion executive plans to petition Canada’s justice minister to block the extradition request, citing his advanced age and declining health as core justifications for the request. Nygard has repeatedly denied every allegation brought against him since the investigations first began.