Peter Nygard transferred to Toronto to face sexual assault charges
Winnipeg police execute warrant almost a month after charges first announced
Disgraced former fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been transferred to Toronto from Winnipeg to face multiple charges of sexual assault, CBC News has learned.
Winnipeg police confirmed Thursday they assisted Toronto police in executing a warrant for Nygard's arrest and he was transported to Toronto.
Toronto police issued the arrest warrant on Oct. 1, stating Nygard was being charged with six counts of sexual assault and three counts of forcible confinement, for incidents that allegedly happened between 1987 and 2006.
This comes more than 10 months after he was charged with a number of offences in the United States.
Nygard, 80, has been in custody since he was arrested at a Winnipeg house on Dec. 14, 2020.
He is charged in the U.S. with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy related to "a decades-long pattern of criminal conduct involving at least dozens of victims in the United States, the Bahamas and Canada," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
On the same day the Toronto charges were announced, Nygard signed a consent form agreeing to bypass the court extradition process and move straight to ministerial review by Justice Minister David Lametti.
A spokesperson for the federal justice department said Lametti has not made a decision to order Nygard's surrender to the United States. The spokesperson said it will also be up to the minister to decide whether Nygard's extradition would await the outcome of the Canadian charges.
Nygard's lawyer Brian Greenspan said earlier this month that although his client has agreed to move ahead with the extradition process, he still maintains his innocence.
"As in the past, Mr. Nygard denies any allegations of criminal conduct. He denies any suggestion that he engaged in conduct for which he should be charged criminally," he said outside the Winnipeg law courts on Oct. 1.
Jay Prober, another lawyer representing Nygard, said he is scheduled to appear in court in Toronto on Friday.
With files from Caroline Barghout