FBI, NYPD raid fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s Times Square office in sex-trafficking probe
The FBI and NYPD raided the Manhattan offices of fashion mogul Peter Nygard Tuesday amid an ongoing federal sex-trafficking investigation, sources said.
The feds are probing claims that Nygard plied underage girls with booze at sex parties at his Bahamas mansion, according to law enforcement sources.
Nygard announced late Tuesday he was stepping down as chairman of Nygard International and will divest his ownership interest.
Photos from the office raid show federal agents and city cops swarming the company’s Broadway headquarters — and hauling away at least a half-dozen cardboard boxes.
Manhattan US Attorney’s Office spokesman Nicholas Biase confirmed Tuesday’s raid but declined to provide details.
A spokesman for Nygard said the wealthy playboy’s Los Angeles offices were also raided, but the FBI and federal prosecutors would not confirm that blitz.
The raid comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit filed Feb. 13 by 10 unidentified women who accuse the 78-year-old Canadian businessman of a “decades-long sex-trafficking scheme.”
One accuser says she was just 15 at the time of the abuse. The age of consent in the Bahamas is 16.
According to the lawsuit, Nygard regularly hosted sex-fueled soirées known as “pamper parties” at his ritzy mansion in exclusive Lyford Cay in the Bahamas — which he renamed Nygard Cay in 1992 and was once featured on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”
The parties were “both to promote the Nygard company’s brand and facilitate commercial sex acts,” the lawsuit charges.
Lawyers for the accusers said they have “over 100 witnesses” in the case that includes “dozens of victims.”
The suit said Nygard also used Nygard International’s corporate jet to “smuggle” the women and girls to sites in the United States and at his estate in the Caribbean archipelago.
In a statement Tuesday, Nygard spokesman Ken Frydman claimed the allegations were “fabricated” by billionaire hedge-funder Louis Bacon — with whom Nygard has been embroiled in a legal battle spanning more than a decade and spawning more than two dozen lawsuits.
“As a direct result and in furtherance of the conspiracy planned by billionaire Louis Bacon, federal agents have executed a search and seizure on Nygard offices in California and New York,” Frydman said. “As with other actions taken as a result of Louis Bacon’s conspiracy, Nygard is not surprised by this latest action.
“Nygard welcomes the federal investigation and expects his name to be cleared,” the spokesman said.
“He has not been charged, is not in custody, and is cooperating with the investigation.”
A representative for Bacon declined to comment Tuesday.
The bad blood between Nygard and Bacon stems from a massive personality clash and a tiny driveway shared by their neighboring Bahamian properties.
Bacon is “a self-professed environmentalist” — in stark contrast to his Canadian-born neighbor’s raucous playboy lifestyle, according to a 2016 article in Town & Country.
Nygard’s compound, by comparison, is decorated with hundreds of torches, carved dragons and giant statues of nude women modeled after former girlfriends, according to Vanity Fair.
The floodgates opened in 2007 when the two became embroiled in an argument over water runoff that was flooding the shared roadway, Vanity Fair reported in 2015.
When a 2009 electrical fire on Nygard’s side of the road razed several buildings — including his 32,000-square-foot “grand hall” and disco — the fashion mogul blamed Bacon.
Over the years, the feud has become increasingly hostile, with Bacon accusing Nygard of sex trafficking and Nygard accusing Bacon of everything from insider trading to membership in the Ku Klux Klan.
Bacon said he even feared that Nygard would have him killed, The New York Times said in a report last week.
The newspaper reported that investigators tied to Bacon had offered “generous incentives” to help make a case against Nygard, with money trickling down to his accusers.
At least two women who claimed they were raped as minors — but were not plaintiffs in the recent suit — later recanted their stories and said they were promised cash and were coached to make the claims, the Times reported.
“Given Mr. Nygard’s pattern of alleged horrific sexual abuse over a period of decades, and spanning the globe, it is not surprising that he now finds himself under the scrutiny of the FBI,” the accusers said in a statement.
“And while his representatives continue to spout far-fetched conspiracy theories as his sole defense, the volume of evidence and the number of victims coming forward to hold Mr. Nygard responsible for his behavior continue to grow.
“Our focus remains squarely on pursuing justice for these countless victims who have been so viciously harmed by Mr. Nygard and his enablers.”