Executives at Peter Nygard's fashion company ordered employees to delete computer files on the same day that FBI agents investigating sex trafficking raided the mogul's offices, attorneys for alleged victims wrote in a new letter.
The evidence destruction spree occurred at Nygard's offices in Winnipeg and the Bahamas, attorney Greg Gutzler said, relaying tips he received from former employees with "direct knowledge." The deletion of evidence occurred on Feb. 25 _ the same day the feds raided Nygard's Times Square and California offices, Gutzler wrote.
"We learned that Mr. Nygard's employees and/or affiliates in the Bahamas and Winnipeg have been instructed to spoliate evidence by wiping or otherwise destroying their hard disk drives or other computer storage devices, and that that data destruction is proceeding as we write this letter," Gutzler wrote in a letter dated Feb. 26 and made public Monday.
"Nygard executives ordered employees to destroy computer files and 'clean up' records."
The feds launched the raid weeks after Nygard, 76, was slapped with a lawsuit filed by 10 women claiming he abused them at drug-fueled "pamper parties" at his Bahamas mansion. The Canadian clothing king, who resigned from his namesake company, now faces abuse claims from 46 women. Some of the women say they were underage.
Gutzler wrote that he would ask a judge to impose sanctions on Nygard for abusing the legal process by destroying evidence. Company employees maintained a database maintained for Nygard on more than 7,500 women and girls dating back to 1987, the lawsuit charges.
A Nygard spokesman did not immediately respond to an email. The fashion mogul has denied wrongdoing and said the allegations are the result of a long-running, bizarre spat with his neighbor in the Bahamas, hedge fund titan Louis Bacon.
