Peter Nygard, the 79-year-old Finnish-Canadian fashion designer, was sued on Sunday by two of his sons, who accused their father of sex trafficking, and claimed that he arranged for them both to be raped when they were underage.
The suit, which was filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, comes just months after ten women and girls filed a sexual assault and trafficking lawsuit against Nygard, another in a long line of trafficking, rape, and abuse claims against the multi-millionaire designer.
In their suit against their father, Nygard’s sons — referred to in the filing as John Doe No. 1 and John Doe No. 2 — say that their father ordered one of his longtime “girlfriends,” a “known sex worker,” to “make a man” out of them, and statutorily rape them when they were 14 and 15, respectively. The documents also allege that Nygard’s business, the Nygard Companies, knowingly conspired, aided, facilitated, and helped cover up the rapes, by providing company money and resources.
According to the filing, in 2018, when John Doe No. 1 was 14 years old, Nygard arranged for him to be flown from California to Nygard’s residence in Winnipeg, Canada. There, Nygard’s girlfriend — referred to in the suit as “Jane Roe” — raped the boy, “at Nygard’s explicit instructions and directions,” per the suit.
Fourteen years earlier, in 2004, John Doe No. 2 says he was 15 when Nygard arranged for him to be raped by Jane Roe at Nygard’s residence in the Bahamas.
“Hopefully, my experience will help other people be able to speak the truth about what’s happened to them,” the older of the two sons told CBC News.
Nygard’s lawyer has dismissed these claims as lies, according to the CBC.
Earlier this year, in February 2020, the FBI and NYPD executed a search warrant at Nygard’s Manhattan offices to investigate sexual assault and trafficking claims against him. According to the lawsuit, which was brought by ten women and girls, Nygard sexually assaulted “young, impressionable, and often impoverished children and women,” who he lured into his sphere with cash, and false promises of lucrative modeling deals. He would then allegedly coerce them into sex using alcohol, drugs, or force.
The suit included complaints that date back four decades, and some of the plaintiffs involved are minors. The filing also alleged that Nygard kept a “database of potential victims” — over 7,500 women and underage girls — on his company’s server.
The FBI had also reportedly investigated trafficking claims against Nygard in 2015 and 2017, according to the BBC.
A spokesperson for Nygard said in February that the claims in the suit were “completely false, without foundation and are vigorously denied”.
