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Canadian Fashion Exec Peter Nygard Accused of Raping Young Girls in Lawsuit

Nygard is accused of drugging girls, raping them, coercing them into defecating or urinating on him, and offering them money.

Ten women filed a class-action lawsuit against Canadian fashion executive Peter Nygard, claiming he drugged and raped girls as young as 15 years old over the course of decades. According to The Globe and Mail, Nygard—the 77-year-old owner of the eponymous women's clothing chain—is accused of luring women into his Bahamas compound and other homes under the pretense of modeling contract interviews or fashion industry events, known as “pamper parties.” Once the women were on his property, Nygard would allegedly use “alcohol, drugs, force, fraud” and other coercive forms to have the women do sex acts—which included sodomy and women defecating or urinating on him, according to the lawsuit. If women resisted his advances, he would allegedly have the bartenders spike their drinks with Rohypnol, or the “date-rape drug.” Many of the women claimed they were subsequently offered money. One woman—who was 15-years-old at the time—said she was drugged and then raped anally and vaginally. The suit alleges that Nygard offered her $5,000 before raping her, then $10,000 to defecate in his mouth. The women, now between the ages of 18 and 36, consist of nine Bahamians and one American.

The lawsuit claims that Nygard moving the women to one of his various homes in the U.S. and the Bahamas, often via private jet, violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. It also alleges that Nygard bribed Bahamian politicians and police to cover up his actions. Nygard's lawyer said the accusations were “completely false,” and described them as part of a decade-long fight between Nygard and his neighbor in the Bahamas—hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and asks for damages to be determined in court.