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Peter Nygard used power, status to sexually assault women
in office bedroom suite, court told
Nygard has pleaded not guilty to 5 counts of sexual assault, 1 of forcible confinement
Mark Gollom · CBC News · Posted: Sep 26, 2023 1:00 AM PDT
Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard used his power and status to lure and sexually assault five women in the private bedroom suite of his downtown Toronto headquarters from the late 1980s to 2005, a Toronto court heard Tuesday morning.
In her opening argument, Crown attorney Ana Serban gave a brief but detailed synopsis of each of the attacks Nygard, now 82, is alleged to have committed against the women, who ranged in age from 16 to 28 at the time.
Nygard had previously met each of the women and would give them "the tour" of his headquarters at 1 Niagara Street, court heard, which would eventually end up at his bedroom suite.
This suite included a bed, televisions and a jacuzzi, but also doors without handles and locks controlled by Nygard, the Crown alleged. It was in this room that Nygard sexually assaulted the women, court heard.
Nygard pleaded not guilty last week in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.
On Tuesday, Nygard was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, wearing a black suit and white shirt, with no tie, and black-rimmed glasses. His hands were cuffed in front of him, with his long white hair tied back into a bun.
Nygard was uncuffed and helped by a court security guard into his seat at the defence table where he took a seat beside his lawyers. This was a prior agreement, that he would be allowed to sit with his defence team and have access to a pen.
Nygard stood, showing no emotion, as the charges against him were read to the jury.
Nygard also faces sex-related charges in Manitoba and Quebec, and is set to be extradited to the U.S. to face sex-related charges there once his criminal cases in Canada are completed.
He founded the now-defunct Nygard International in Winnipeg in 1967, but stepped down as chairman of the clothing company in February 2020 before it file for bankruptcy.
JPMorgan to pay $75M to settle Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit
with US Virgin Islands
By Shannon Thaler, NYPost
Published Sep. 26, 2023, 10:28 a.m. ET
JPMorgan Chase agreed on Tuesday to pay the US Virgin Islands $75 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the Wall Street behemoth enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring by ignoring red flags related to Epstein’s accounts at the investment bank.
The settlement comes just one month before JPMorgan and the USVI were set to go to trial in Manhattan over the bank’s ties to Epstein, which CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly claimed in two-day deposition in May he knew nothing about until the sex offender’s 2019 arrest.
For the CEO of a major bank, he was remarkably poorly informed, almost like it was deliberate.
JPMorgan didn’t admit to any wrongdoing as part of the agreement, which will see $30 million contributed to USVI-based charitable organizations and $25 million paid to enhance the USVI’s infrastructure and law enforcement.
JPMorgan will dish out an additional $20 million to cover attorneys’ fees.
“The firm deeply regrets any association with this man, and would never have continued doing business with him if it believed he was using the bank in any way to commit his heinous crimes,” JPMorgan said in a statement.
Epstein owned multiple private islands in the USVI, including Little St. James — also known as “pedophile island†— where Epstein and his gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly abused underage girls.
AP
Patricia Wexler, a spokesperson for the bank, said the settlement “recognizes that JPMorgan remains committed to previous and ongoing efforts to fight human trafficking through its anti-money laundering (AML) program, and lists a number of processes we previously committed to.”
“There are no new commitments,” Wexler noted. “Our controls, compliance, risk and other functions are always improving, and we are continually investing to become even better.”
Also on Tuesday, JPMorgan reached an agreement with Jes Staley, a former executive who was sued by the bank earlier this year for allegedly failing to disclose information about Epstein’s abusive regime to his bosses.
In the lawsuit, filed in March, JPMorgan said Staley — the ex-chief of Barclays who was forced to step down in 2021 over the Epstein scandal — should personally be held liable for any damages that JPMorgan will have to pay out as part of the lawsuit the banking giant faced against the USVI involving the convicted pedophile.
The terms of JPMorgan’s agreement with Staley, who has maintained his innocence, are confidential.
The Virgin Islands was initially seeking at least $190 million to settle the suit, including $150 million in civil fines and at least $40 million in penalties — more than twice Tuesday’s result.
JPMorgan also reached an agreement with a former executive, Jes Staley, who the bank claimed failed to disclose information about Epstein's abusive regime to his bosses. The terms of the settlement are confidential.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon maintained his innocence throughout the case, instead pointing fingers at Staley, who was the CEO of JPMorgan’s Asset Management division in 2004, when Dimon first joined the bank.
REUTERS
In June, JPMorgan agreed to pay $290 million to settle a lawsuit with Epstein victims, including an anonymous Jane Doe and other unnamed Epstein accusers over the course of a 15-year period.
Following the latest settlements, JPMorgan concludes its legal saga involving its affiliation with Epstein, which had revealed the bank’s deep ties with the late financier in a series of explosive court filings.
In July, freshly public evidence filed in Manhattan federal court released emails showing a top banker at JPMorgan desperately sought help from Epstein as the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme slammed the bank’s clients in 2008 — despite the fact that Epstein had recently been convicted of sex-trafficking charges.
On Dec. 12, 2008, Mary Erdoes — a star banker who is now the CEO of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division — frantically emailed Staley as the Madoff disaster began to unfold.
“The ny/palm beach community will be in shock. Can you call JE [Jeffrey Epstein] to get the scoop from down there?” Erdoes continued in her email to Staley.
Six months earlier, in June 2008, Epstein had pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Jeffrey Epstein on the corner of East 38th Street and Second Ave, NYC
Februrary 2011
David McGlynn
Yet Erdoes, who began working for JPMorgan in 1996 and rose to become chief of the bank’s prestigious asset and wealth management business in 2009, continued to work with Epstein until 2013, the USVI alleged in a motion for summary judgment.
“Epstein was a personal resource to Erdoes,” claimed the court documents, which also said that “Erdoes personally sought Epstein’s help in resolving a $600 million tax issue” on behalf of another unidentified individual during his time as a JPMorgan client.
In response to the court documents, filed in July, JPMorgan spokesperson Darin Oduyoye told The Post at the time: “Mary has always held herself and her colleagues to the highest standards of integrity and trust, leading the Asset & Wealth Management business by example.”
The bank didn’t yank Epstein from the client list until 2013, when red flags emerged related to Epstein’s massive cash withdrawals.
Leading up to the Oct. 23 trial, the USVI claimed that JPMorgan maintained a relationship with Epstein through his initial bout in prison and during his sex-trafficking probe because he brought a slew of deep-pocketed clients to JPMorgan.
One of those wealthy individuals was Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who became one of the bank’s biggest clients with investments worth more than $4 billion.
The USVI’s motion for summary judgment also revealed that “Brin became a client of JPMorgan’s San Francisco Private Bank in 2004” — one year after Epstein introduced Brin to Staley.
“The overall Brin relationship is one of the largest in the Private Bank, of +$4BN,” wrote banker Robert A. Keller in a memo, according to the USVI, where Epstein owned multiple private islands, including Little St. James — also known as “pedophile island” — where Epstein and his gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly abused underage girls.
Other members of Epstein’s high-net-worth network he allegedly recruited to the bank: Bill Gates, the sultan of Dubai, Prince Andrew, Hyatt hotel heir Thomas Pritzker, billionaire hedge fund founder Glenn Dubin “and many other ultra-wealthy clients.”
Epstein committed suicide while awaiting trial in 2019.
Epstein was suicided while awaiting trial in 2019.
I wonder is $75mn will make even the slightest difference to JPMorgan's bottom line?
Ex-ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek should get up to
15 years for ‘sadistic’ child porn case: feds
By Priscilla DeGregory, NYPost
Published Sep. 26, 2023, 12:51 p.m. ET
Disgraced former ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek — who traded “sadistic” child pornography content involving infants and toddlers — should get as much as 15 years behind bars at his sentencing later this week, federal prosecutors said.
Meek, 54, is set to be sentenced Friday in Virginia federal court after he pleaded guilty in July to transporting and possessing child sex abuse material — and has asked the judge for the minimum of five years in prison.
Federal guidelines recommend that Meek should get between 12 1/2 years and 15 years behind bars — which prosecutors argued is an appropriate range for his sentence as they detailed his sick acts in court papers.
“He clearly sought out individuals across the internet for the specific purpose of sharing (and expanding) his [Child Sexual Abuse Material] collection for his sexual gratification,” prosecutors Zoe Bedell and Whitney Kramer said in a filing from Friday.
The once-acclaimed national security journalist sent and received child porn materials of “infants and toddlers and content depicting sadistic and masochistic abuse of prepubescent children,” the prosecutors wrote.
He looked for kids online, “including by posing as a minor himself,” and was part of a chat group called “C–ks, C–ts, and Kids,” the filing states.
Meek’s slew of perverted acts also included using one underage girl’s “affection” for a public figure to convince her to send him “at least a dozen screenshots” of her breasts and pubic area, the court papers claim.
James Gordon Meek should be sentenced to as much as 15 years’ imprisonment, prosecutors said.
AP
His phone had screenshots taken from messages exchanged with a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old of their breasts — and in the same chats, he is seen on video “naked and holding his penis in his hand,” the filing alleges.
Meek’s twisted tastes were wide-ranging, with his conduct spanning “multiple platforms and years” — up to almost a decade, the feds claimed.
Victims of child porn trafficking suffer even more than regular abuse victims because they continue to be victimized by the fact that the materials can exist on the internet indefinitely, the feds explained, emphasizing the seriousness of Meek’s crimes.
“A significant sentence of imprisonment is warranted to deter the defendant and others from engaging in this conduct in the future,” the prosecutors wrote.
Meanwhile, Meek’s lawyer, Eugene Gorokhov, asked for the lightest sentence possible, calling the guideline range “excessive,” according to partially redacted court papers filed Monday.
Meek’s lack of criminal history, the good deeds in his life and his remorse and total acceptance of responsibility all warrant leniency, Gorokhov wrote.
“Meek’s criminal conduct in this case is completely at odds with his proven personal values,” the lawyer wrote.
Which simply means he's a liar and a hypocrite.
Meek — who is divorced — is the “doting father” of two daughters, ages 16 and 20, who have suffered “pain and embarrassment” from his actions.
Of course, children almost always suffer from the perverted actions of men.
He “has lost nearly everything,” with his reputation and financial well-being destroyed, his family being subjected to the scandal and many of his friends cutting ties with him, Gorokhov wrote.
And, somehow, he didn't realize he was putting all those things art risk? How do you get to be a nationally known journalist when you are that stupid and irresponsible.
Meek’s extensive coverage of the war on terrorism in the Middle East — including viewing photos and footage of war — came at a cost “in the form of his mental health,” Gorokhov wrote in a heavily redacted portion of court papers.
“It is notable that trauma has been found to lead to this type of emotional numbing, combined with an increased tendency towards impulsivity,” the lawyer wrote.
In child pornography cases, “individuals are reluctant to seek out help both because of the shame involved and the fear of legal consequences,” Gorokhov wrote.
The attorney noted that while that’s no excuse, it helps explain Meek’s conduct.
The shamed journalist resigned from ABC News and went off the grid immediately after the feds raided his Arlington, Va., home on April 27, 2022, seizing his electronics.
The judge overseeing Meek’s case will not be bound by the federal sentencing guidelines. But because of the recommendations, Meek is unlikely to get a sentence near the maximum of 20 years behind bars that he faces with his plea.
Meek was hired by ABC News in 2013 after working for the Daily News, where in 2006 he broke that al Qaeda’s plan to bomb New York City tunnels had been foiled.
He won an Emmy in 2017 for his breaking news coverage of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and he investigated and produced Hulu’s acclaimed documentary “3212 Un-redacted” about a 2017 US special forces mission in Niger where four soldiers were killed.
He also served as a senior counterterrorism adviser and investigator for the US House Committee on Homeland Security beginning in 2011.
Gorokhov didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
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