Peter Nygard, the former fashion mogul behind a fallen fashion empire, has been found guilty of four counts of sexual assault by a Toronto jury. The verdict was reached after just over three days of deliberation at the end of a six-week trial. Nygard, 82, was also found not guilty of one count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement. His sentencing date will be determined later this month.

This marks the first criminal conviction against Nygard, who has been in jail for the past two years. He is also expected to stand trial on charges of sex crimes in Montreal next June, and in Winnipeg, although a trial date for the latter has not been set. Following the conclusion of the Canadian proceedings, Nygard will be extradited to New York to face charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and other charges in a nine-count indictment. Nygard has appealed the New York extradition ruling in Winnipeg, citing poor health, but a decision has not yet been issued by the court.

The prosecution's case heavily relied on the testimonies of five women, whose accounts formed the bulk of the evidence presented in the Toronto trial. These women testified that they were lured by Nygard to a personal bedroom suite in his Toronto headquarters under false pretenses, such as receiving a building tour, and were sexually assaulted. The assaults were alleged to have occurred between the 1980s and 2005 when the complainants were between the ages of 16 and 28. Their identities are protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

One complainant, who first accused Nygard in 1998 of raping her almost a decade earlier, stated, "It's something that has tainted my life." She dropped her complaint to Toronto police soon after, out of fear of reprisal from the fashion mogul, as his chief security officer flew to Toronto to gather information about her identity. Another woman, a former employee, tearfully testified that she was sexually assaulted by Nygard at a party in the Toronto office, where he had hired her as a hostess. She did not disclose the incident to anyone, fearing that her allegations would not be believed due to Nygard's wealth and power.

During the trial, both the prosecution and the defense focused on mining the memories of the witnesses, including Nygard himself, who testified in his own defense for approximately a week. Nygard consistently denied the accusations and claimed not to remember meeting four of the complainants. However, he did recognize his former employee. Nygard's testimony was marked by frequent claims of "short-term memory loss," although prosecutors questioned his ability to remember other details. He maintained that the sexual assaults and rapes described by the women were not in line with his character, stating, "My position is that I would not have conducted myself in that kind of manner."

Prosecutor Ana Serban characterized Nygard's testimony as evasive, inconsistent, and wrong, arguing that his memory was unreliable and selective. She urged the jury to reject his blanket denials. Nygard claimed that records supporting his defense were lost in a "mysterious fire" at a former warehouse in Winnipeg, which had been put in receivership after his company filed for bankruptcy in 2020. He also stated that his electronic records had been compromised in a hacking incident.

The defense, led by lawyer Brian Greenspan, called on the jury to reject the prosecution's narrative and the "revisionist histories" presented by the five women. Greenspan accused the women of fabricating their stories for financial gain, referring to their involvement in a class-action lawsuit against Nygard in the United States. Nygard was recently ordered by a New York State judge to pay $203 million in damages in a defamation suit brought against him by hedge fund billionaire Louis Bacon.

Nygard, who was once estimated to be worth $700 million, has seen a significant fall from grace. He stepped down as chairman of his company, Nygard International, in February 2020, shortly before it filed for bankruptcy following a raid by US authorities on its New York headquarters. He has been in jail since his arrest in December of the same year.