Epstein Island is not the only one

Peter Nygard was Canada's Epstien.

Peter Nygard, meet Jeffrey Epstein.

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The Canadian fashion kingpin has fallen into sordid company amid explosive allegations he sexually assaulted a slew of underage women — including three 14-year-olds.

Ten unidentified women have filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Nygard, 77, of rape and sex trafficking.

The allegations are eerily similar to the twisted web woven by hedge fund pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Whispers about the Finnish-born designer’s sexual predilections have been floating around for decades but little has stuck.

“Nygard lured and enticed young, impressionable, and often impoverished children and women with cash payments and false promises of lucrative modelling opportunities in order to assault, rape, and sodomize them. When the victims were not swayed by promises, many were drugged to force compliance with Nygard’s sexual desires,” the plaintiffs said in a press release.

Among the allegations:

— Many of the women were underage at the time of the alleged assaults, between 2008 and 2015.

— Nygard allegedly ordered underlings to “procure” the girls and take them to what he called “pamper parties.”

— At the parties, they were allegedly fed drugs and booze.

— One girl, who claimed she was 15 when she was lured to Nygard’s Bahamas playpen, alleges the rag trade poohbah tried to sodomize her, then raped her and asked her to defecate in his mouth.

— Many of the payouts were allegedly run through his string of companies, the suit charges.

— The lawsuit also alleges the style impresario bribed cops and government officials in the Bahamas to turn a blind eye to his antics.

— Nygard allegedly has a database of more than 7,500 underage girls and women.

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Most of the incidents allegedly occurred at Nygard’s mansion on Lyford Cay in the Caribbean paradise. And most of the alleged victims were young “impoverished” Bahamian girls.

“After hearing these tragic stories, we were compelled to act and bring a voice to those who have been hurt for so long,” said Greg Gutzler, one of the lawyers who filed the suit. “We know many others were afraid to come forward initially and hope that this lawsuit will pave the way for them to also seek justice.”

“The facts, in this case, represent the tip of the iceberg of an international sex trafficking ring that ends today,” he alleged.

Nygard’s legal eagles have characterized the lurid allegations as false.

Instead, his team claims the charges are rooted in a bitter property dispute between Nygard and his former hedge fund billionaire neighbour Louis Bacon.

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The dispute began as a noise complaint and then escalated.

His New York spokesman characterized the allegations as “a scam.”

Nygard has been down this road before.

In the early 1990s, he settled three sexual harassment complaints out of court.

A lifetime ago, Nygard was also linked to tragic model Anna Nicole Smith.

The multi-millionaire told The Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington, “I could have loved her.”

bhunter@postmedia.com

https://torontosun.com/news/national/sex-trafficking-is-peter-nygard-the-canadian-jeffrey-epstein