Nygard ‘top girlfriend,’ niece accused in Florida, California lawsuits

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This article was published 14/12/2020 (1375 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Florida woman is suing fallen fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s “top girlfriend,” Instagram model Suelyn Medeiros, claiming she lured her and other young women to his Bahamian estate to be raped.

In a lawsuit filed in Florida in October, the woman, identified as Jane Doe, alleges she was an 18-year-old aspiring model in 2010 when Medeiros invited her to a party in Miami “with the ultimate intention of trafficking her to Nygard.”

Jane Doe v. Suelyn Medeiros

Medeiros, the lawsuit alleges, “enticed” Doe to join her in the Bahamas for a ”fun party weekend” at the home of her friend who owned a fashion company.

Once at Nygard’s Bahamian compound, Medeiros told Doe she would have to have sex with Nygard, and that sex with Nygard “wasn’t that bad” and would be “really fast and easy.”

When Doe refused to have sex with Nygard, Medeiros abruptly left the Bahamas, abandoning Doe at the compound, the lawsuit alleges.

“While isolated and confined within the Nygard compound,” Nygard raped Doe, the lawsuit alleges, and gave her $500 the following morning as “payment.”

Medeiros actively recruited Doe and other women for Nygard to rape as part of his “sweeping international sex trafficking venture,” the lawsuit alleges. Medeiros, the lawsuit says, was a full-time salaried Nygard employee, and for her services was provided with plastic surgery, stem cell injections, jewelry, luxury automobiles and an American Express card “with nearly no limit.”

Medeiros was one of Nygard’s many “girlfriends,” who were, in fact, paid sex workers, the lawsuit alleges.

Medeiros, who the lawsuit alleges lived in Nygard’s Marina del Rey compound for at least five years, “was for many years considered Nygard’s “top girlfriend” based on her ability, willingness and proclivity to lure, entice, coerce and defraud young woman to meet Nygard so that Nygard could ultimately rape them.”

In August 2019, as sex abuse allegations mounted against Nygard, Medeiros joined Nygard at his Falcon Lake home “to do damage control,” the lawsuit alleges, and was instructed to falsely claim she was “always” with him as an alibi.

Doe, the lawsuit alleges, didn’t feel safe to come forward with her allegations until a class-action lawsuit was filed against him and the FBI launched an investigation.

In a separate lawsuit filed in California last month, another alleged Nygard “co-conspirator,” niece Angela Dyborn, is accused of trafficking young women for Nygard to rape.

According to the lawsuit, April Telek was working as a model in 1993 when Dyborn, an acquaintance, convinced her to speak with Nygard on the pretext he was interested in her modelling his Signature Line.

April Telek v. Angela Dyborn

Telek was provided a plane ticket to Winnipeg and told she would be staying at the Nygard Companies’ “Executive Suites,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Dyborn picked April Telek up from the airport when she arrived in Winnipeg, knowing that Nygard intended to rape and/or sexually assault her,” the lawsuit alleges.

Telek was dropped off at Nygard’s Notre Dame Avenue warehouse where Nygard allegedly took her to his private apartment and prevented her from leaving.

Nygard, the lawsuit alleges, drugged Telek and repeatedly raped her over the course of two days.

Telek alleges she escaped the apartment when Nygard fell asleep.

When Telek later told Dyborn of the alleged attack, Dyborn said: “I watched the tape; you didn’t fight back that hard,” the lawsuit alleges.

Dyborn, who lives in California, “has been a key co-conspirator with Peter Nygard for decades, and has been a key cog in his vast sex trafficking network,” the lawsuit alleges.

As a full-time Nygard employee, Dyborn “has been instrumental in knowingly aiding, abetting, facilitating, conspiring and participating in (Nygard and his companies’) sex trafficking conspiracy,” the lawsuit alleges.

Dyborn, the lawsuit alleges, has paid victims “hush money” and arranged for them to receive abortions and medical treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Since Nygard’s companies went into receivership, she has conspired to steal and hide company assets, says the lawsuit.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Nygard has continued to maintain his innocence, alleging he is the target of a vast conspiracy against him.

dean.pritchard@freepress.ca