NEW YORK—DiCello Levitt commends a Toronto, Canada jury decision on Sunday that found 82-year-old former fashion mogul Peter Nygard guilty of four counts of sexual assault committed between the late 1980s and 2005. According to prosecutors, Nygard lured his victims between the ages of 16 and 28 to a private suite at his firm’s Toronto headquarters, where he sexually assaulted the women.
The Toronto guilty verdict comes against the backdrop of DiCello Levitt’s years-long investigation that resulted in the landmark sexual assault class action complaint filed in February 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of 57 women initially—and now more than 130 women—detailing the fashion mogul’s sprawling international sex-trafficking venture built to lure hundreds of in part underage women to be drugged and assaulted by Nygard.
Just six months after DiCello Levitt’s filing against Nygard, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Nygard, charging him with racketeering, sex trafficking, and related crimes against dozens of victims in several countries, resulting in the raid of multiple Nygard properties. In May 2023, the U.S. court ruled that Nygard should be extradited to the United States to face a criminal trial after conclusion of the trial in Canada.
“As we detailed in our complaint, Peter Nygard raped, sexually assaulted, molested, and sex-trafficked his victims, many of whom were minors or even impoverished children and women. He is a textbook sexual predator who lured his victims with false promises of lucrative modeling opportunities to assault and rape them later. We applaud the long overdue guilty verdict by a Toronto jury and look forward to now seeing Nygard finally brought to justice in the United States,” said DiCello Levitt Partner Greg Gutzler.
“We look forward to many more convictions in both the U.S. and Canadian courts. Hopefully, as his jail cell is locked for the rest of his life, his victims will feel some sense of justice and a measure of relief,” said DiCello Levitt Founding Partner Mark DiCello.
DiCello added, “It’s also deeply rewarding that due to the incredible courage of the victims in coming forward and the herculean efforts of our partner, Greg Gutzler, Nygard was finally brought to justice. Without that team led by Greg, Nygard would never have been taken off the streets.”
DiCello Levitt represents more than 130 of Peter Nygard’s victims and anticipates filing more civil proceedings against Nygard and his enablers.
About DiCello Levitt
At DiCello Levitt, we’re dedicated to achieving justice for our clients through class action, business-to-business, public client, whistleblower, personal injury, civil and human rights, and mass tort litigation. Our lawyers are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases—whether by trial, settlement, or otherwise—for people who have suffered harm, global corporations that have sustained significant economic losses, and public clients seeking to protect their citizens’ rights and interests. Every day, we put our reputations—and our capital—on the line for our clients.
DiCello Levitt has achieved top recognition as Plaintiffs Firm of the Year and Trial Innovation Firm of the Year by the National Law Journal, in addition to its top-tier Chambers and Benchmark ratings. The New York Law Journal also recently recognized DiCello Levitt as a Distinguished Leader in trial innovation. For more information about the firm, including recent trial victories and case resolutions, please visit www.dicellolevitt.com.
Media Contact
Christine Schiffner: (703) 862-5202 or cschiffner@dicellolevitt.com