Peter Nygard consents to being committed for extradition to U.S. on sex trafficking charges

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has signed a consent form agreeing to be committed for extradition to the United States to face federal sex trafficking charges

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has signed a consent form agreeing to be committed for extradition to the United States to face federal sex trafficking charges (Annie I. Bang /Invision/AP, File)

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has signed a consent form agreeing to be committed for extradition to the United States to face federal sex trafficking charges, his lawyer told a Canadian court on Friday morning.

The move does not conclude the extradition process for the 80-year-old business magnate. The final decision on whether to surrender him to US authorities will fall to Canada’s justice minister. Brian Greenspan, one of Nygard’s attorneys, said he intends to make “extensive” submissions to Minister David Lametti.

Nygard, who founded the women’s clothing company Nygard International in 1967, has been held at the Headingley Correctional Center in Manitoba since he was detained last December at the behest of U.S. officials.

He appeared at the hearing in Winnipeg Friday by video link in a mask and confirmed that he had consented to signing the form the day before.

In a nine-count indictment filed in December, US prosecutors accuse Nygard and others of using company “funds, employees, resources and influence” to recruit dozens of victims – some of them minors – in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas for his sexual gratification, and that of his friends and business associates.

The prosecutors allege a scheme that began in 1995, under which Nygard targeted women and girls from “disadvantaged economic backgrounds and/or who had a history of abuse” and controlled them through “threats, false promises of modeling opportunities and other career advancement”.

The Washington Post