Canadian fashion mogul accused of raping 10 women in civil lawsuit

Six of the women involved in the lawsuit were between the ages of 14 and 15 when the alleged rapes occurred. The women, now ranging from ages 18 to 36 seek damages for the alleged crimes which occurred between 2008 and 2015.

The plaintiffs names are not being revealed “to protect their identities because of the sensitive and highly personal nature of this matter.”

The lawsuit claims that Nygard “recruited, lured and enticed young, impressionable and often impoverished children and women, with cash payments and false promises of lucrative modelling opportunities to assault, rape and sodomize them.”

No criminal charges are connected with the allegations.

In a statement on Thursday, Nygard’s lawyer said the claims are “completely false [and] without foundation”

Jay Prober said, “Peter Nygard looks forward to fully exposing this scam, and once and for all clearing his name.”

The 77-year-old is the owner of a large clothing empire that is run out of Winnipeg. The multimillion-dollar company has over 170 stores in North America.

The lawsuit also accuses the businessman of drugging the women by placing “Rohypnol and/or other mind-altering drugs in their drinks.”

It alleges that Nygard, “initiated a scheme to purchase police protection and political cover in the Bahamas by making regular payments of tens of thousands of dollars to law enforcement, government officials, regulators and even to a former cabinet minister who became the prime minister of the Bahamas.”

The lawsuit claims “Nygard also paid people, using Nygard Company money, to intimidate his former ‘girlfriends’ by slashing their tires, committing arson, paying police to threaten to arrest them and by having them followed.”

The alleged rapes happened during or after parties hosted by Nygard, which he has called “pamper parties” according to the lawsuit.

Nygard’s staff were apparently told to bring young women to the parties which took place weekly. Guests information would be collected and put into a database when they arrived at the parties. Photos would even be sent to Nygard to look over, CBC reported.

The lawsuit says, “Nygard would then use this information to select his potential victims for the night.”

According to the lawsuit, there are over 7,500 women and underage girls in Nygard’s database.

The allegations put forward on Thursday come after Nygard was accused of sexual assault in separate lawsuits in January in L.A.

Nygard denies those allegations as well.