Is Peter Nygard a serial rapist? All the charges against the fashion mogul

Seventy-nine-year-old fashion designer Peter Nygard has been arrested for sexual assault. Allegations have recently surfaced that he assaulted an alarming number of women. Here’s everything we know so far.

The arrest

Peter Nygard was arrested in Winnipeg and his court date is scheduled later this afternoon. Earlier this year, a lawsuit claimed Nygard lured women to his Bahamas pad. After an investigation, authorities subsequently swarmed his Manhattan office.

The allegations

According to the recent class action lawsuit filed by the DiCello, Levitt, Gutzler and the Haba Law Firm, Peter Nygard lured women into his house in the Bahamas by promising he’d help their careers. Once he got them to his Bahamas estate, Nygard allegedly raped and sodomized them.

One victim was only fifteen when she met Peter Nygard. At his estate, she claimed Nygard raped her and then forced her to defecate in his mouth in exchange for money. A press release stated: “This horrific episode is just one of many like it detailed in the complaint against Nygard and his business entities by ten brave women.”

The release continued: “The class action lawsuit accuses Nygard of sex trafficking and rape – all financed and facilitated by his family of corporations and their employees.”

One victim spoke out following the new release of the information. “I can’t breathe,” she stated. “I can’t face the world because of that, because I feel like so much light and happiness was taken from me.”

Has Peter Nygard been accused before?

Not only has Peter Nygard previously been accused of rape, but many of his corporations played a big part in covering up the abuse and paying victims hush money. In addition, Nygard got the police force in the Bahamas on his side, intimidating them with hefty bribes in exchange for their cooperation.

The lawsuit states that, in order to get away with his crimes in the past, Nygard “resort[ed] to violence, intimidation, bribery, and payoffs.” He also allegedly hired “a network of company employees under his discretion,” whom he instructed to lure in “young, vulnerable and impoverished Bahamian girls” for his own sexual pleasure.

Suelyn Medeiros

One of these recruiters was Instagram model Suelyn Medeiros, who was allegedly a co-conspirator in a number of Peter Nygard’s criminal acts. One victim claimed she saw Medeiros in a Chris Brown video and wrote her a message on Twitter. Medeiros wrote back.

The two got to talking, until Medeiros invited the accuser to a party in Miami. The victim recalls this moment, stating: “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so amazing. She’s so beautiful. I want to be like her.’”

After the party, Medeiros invited the survivor to Peter Nygard’s island. She recalls the invitation: “She’s like, ‘we’ll fly you over there and it’s amazing. There’s jet skis, parasailing . . . it’s a billionaires private island.’ I was like, ‘Awesome. Hell, yeah.’ Like, I was a kid and I’m like, this is how celebrities live and now I’m going to be like one.”

However, once they arrived at the island, it became clear why she’d been brought there. Per the lawsuit: “Medeiros instructed Jane Doe that she was required to have sex with Peter Nygard against Jane Doe’s wishes, stating that she shouldn’t worry because sex with Nygard ‘wasn’t that bad’ and would be ‘really fast and easy.’”

The people defending Nygard

Although the allegations are enough to make anyone sick to their stomach, not everyone is buying it. One spokesperson, Ken Frydman, defended Peter Nygard, stating that the lawsuit was simply “the latest in a 10+ year string of attempts to try to destroy the reputation of a man through false statements.”

Frydman continued: “The allegations are completely false, without foundation and are vigorously denied. Peter Nygard looks forward to fully exposing the scam and once and for all clearing his name.”