Canadian fashion executive Peter Nygard’s company, Nygard International Partnership, has filed for bankruptcy protection in its native Canada and in the U.S. in the wake of sex-trafficking allegations against him, the Wall Street Journal reported. The privately held Winnipeg-based company’s four U.S. affiliates on Wednesday filed for chapter 15 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The international women’s fashion designer and retailer also began a bankruptcy proceeding on Wednesday in Canada. The decision to place the companies into bankruptcy follows Nygard’s decision last month to step down as chairman after federal and local authorities raided the firm’s Manhattan offices as part of an investigation into sex-trafficking allegations against the Canadian fashion mogul. Nygard is being sued in a Manhattan federal court by women accusing him of raping women and underage girls at his Bahamas estate. The class-action lawsuit filed in February by 10 unnamed female plaintiffs alleged he was running a sex-trafficking ring.
