A fashion mogul with links to embattled Prince Andrew has been accused of rape and sex trafficking by ten women, many who claim they were under 18 years old at the time.
The women filed a class-action lawsuit in New York on Thursday (local time), alleging that 77-year-old Peter Nygard "recruited, lured, and enticed young, impressionable, and often impoverished children and women, with cash payments and false promises of lucrative modelling opportunities to assault, rape, and sodomize them".
It's claimed the tycoon used his "considerable influence" in the fashion industry to "groom and entice underage girls and women". Some of those claim they were as young as 14 when allegedly raped by Nygard.
"When Nygard became aware of the investigation into his sex trafficking ring, he resorted to tactics of violence, intimidation, bribery, and payoffs to attempt to silence the victims and to continue his scheme," the lawsuit says.
Nygard rejects the allegations strongly and intends to fight them. None of the accusers are named in the lawsuit, which is 99 pages long.
"[The allegations] are completely false. I’ve seen a lot of false allegations… but I’ve never seen such false allegations that are so nasty," said Nygard's lawyer Jay Prober on radio station 680 CJOB.
Images published by British tabloids, including The Daily Mail and The Sun, show Nygard's links to the British royal family. He is shown with Prince Andrew and the prince's then-wife Sarah Fergurson at an estate in the Bahamas in 2000.
There is no suggestion, however, that the royal knew of Nygard's alleged criminal actions.
Prince Andrew became embroiled in scandal last year when his connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was revealed. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts, claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was underage - something Andrew vehemently denies.
