Former mogul already serving 11-year sentence for Toronto assaults
Peter Nygard, the founder of the now-defunct women’s apparel company Nygard International, appeared in a Montreal courtroom Monday for what was expected to be a 10-day trial. Instead, the 84-year-old offered no contest against evidence presented by prosecutors, prompting the judge to enter a guilty verdict on the two original charges, the BBC reported.
The Montreal case involved allegations dating to the 1990s. Nygard was initially charged in the case in 2022.
Nygard’s lawyer, Gerri Wiebe, said her client “made a strategic decision not to contest the charges” based on his extradition situation, the BBC reported. Wiebe said Nygard intends to request that Canada’s justice minister suspend any extradition to the United States given his age and health.
Nygard had already been sentenced in a separate case. In 2024, a Toronto court sentenced him to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting four women between the late 1980s and 2005. An Ontario appellate court dismissed his appeal in that case earlier this year.
A third set of historical sexual assault charges in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were stayed in 2025 by a judge who found that police had failed to retain older records, breaching Nygard’s right to a fair trial.
Once his legal proceedings in Canada are completed, Nygard is expected to be extradited to the United States. U.S. authorities have alleged that he engaged in a “decades-long pattern of criminal conduct” involving at least a dozen victims in multiple jurisdictions.
Nygard has denied all allegations against him.
Nygard stepped down as chairman of Nygard International in 2020, shortly before the company filed for bankruptcy after U.S. authorities raided its New York headquarters. The former fashion mogul built a global clothing business before a cascade of sexual assault allegations and criminal charges emerged over the past several years.