Uncle Peter | Episode 3: The Tentacled Tyrant

Summary

Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield Episode 3: Uncle Peter | The Tentacled Tyrant Release Date: January 30, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 3 of Uncle Peter, titled "The Tentacled Tyrant," Ashleigh Banfield delves deep into the dark and disturbing world of Peter Nygaard, a serial sex criminal whose reign of terror spanned over five decades. With over 36 years of true crime reporting expertise, Banfield unravels the intricate web of abuse, manipulation, and power that Nygaard wielded, impacting the lives of countless women and his own family members.

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Peter Nygaard's Criminal Legacy

Narrator introduces Peter Nygaard as an 83-year-old serial sex criminal who "openly flaunted horrendous deviant sexual behavior for decades" (00:10). Nygaard, once the head of a billion-dollar clothing empire, Nygaard International, saw his empire crumble due to his insatiable appetite for sex, which was often violent and non-consensual.

Key Points:

• Legal Proceedings: Nygaard was sentenced to 11 years in prison for four counts of sex assault dating back to the late '80s. As of January 2025, he faced a face trial in Montreal and awaited further trials in Winnipeg and New York, along with a class action civil suit involving 135 women (00:20, 01:39).
• Modus Operandi: Nygaard targeted beautiful women, often those who were broken, luring them with promises of modeling contracts, parties, and free housing. Behind his charismatic facade, he exercised dominance and control, leading to rape and sex trafficking.

Notable Quote:

"He's a narcissistic serial predator who uses people around him to get everything he wants and to then put people into a position of silence by intimidating them."
— Greg Gutzler, Attorney (20:15)

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Personal Testimonies from Victims

Jennifer Gilmer, a victim of Peter Nygaard, shares her harrowing experience of being raped at 19 while vacationing in the Bahamas. Introduced to Nygaard through her tennis coach, Gilmer recounts how Nygaard manipulated her into his opulent but terrifying enclave, leading to days of captivity and sexual assault.

Key Points:

• Initial Encounter: Gilmer was drawn to Nygaard's luxurious lifestyle and believed she was visiting for tennis lessons, only to be trapped and assaulted (06:07, 07:05).
• Psychological Impact: The trauma left Gilmer feeling ashamed, leading her to suppress her memories and avoid speaking out until later in life. She discusses ongoing PTSD and the challenges of rebuilding trust (10:53, 16:13).

Notable Quote:

"For me, it was just me being left there by my tennis coach and, and I was just, you know, an easy target."
— Jennifer Gilmer (07:05)

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The Legal Battle and Class Action Suit

Greg Gutzler, representing over 135 Nygaard victims, discusses the extensive legal battle against Nygaard. The class action suit seeks justice for the multitude of victims whose stories span decades and continents.

Key Points:

• Scope of Abuse: Victims range from young teenagers to women in their mid-thirties, highlighting the widespread and prolonged nature of Nygaard's crimes (21:34).
• Legal Strategy: Gutzler emphasizes the complexity of dealing with victims who were also coerced into recruiting others, drawing parallels to cases like Jeffrey Epstein but noting Nygaard's extensive network of recruiters (24:29).

Notable Quote:

"He was using more physical force and he was very violent... He would recruit young women and you would often abuse them, but he would then use them to lure people in."
— Greg Gutzler, Attorney (21:34)

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Family Involvement and Corporate Complicity

Angela Dyborne, Nygaard's niece and longtime employee, provides an insider perspective on the Nygaard empire. Her testimony reveals the intertwined nature of family loyalty and corporate operations that facilitated Nygaard's abuse.

Key Points:

• Allegations Against Angela: A $25 million lawsuit accused Dyborne of orchestrating the kidnapping and rape of a former model, alleging her role in Nygaard's sex trafficking network (35:35). However, the accuser later withdrew the suit, casting doubt on the initial allegations.
• Family Dynamics: The episode explores the psychological control Nygaard exerted over his family and employees, leading to paranoia and denial among those closest to him.

Notable Quote:

"I didn't think anything. I really didn't... believed I was doing a job. I was working for Peter. Peter controlled everything and that I wasn't doing anything illegal."
— Peter Nygaard (33:36)

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Psychological and Social Implications

Dr. Julian Goger, a forensic psychiatrist, offers insights into the psychological manipulation and trauma experienced by Nygaard's victims and associates. He explains how Nygaard's tactics created a survival mindset among his victims, leading to coerced complicity.

Key Points:

• Survival Mechanisms: Victims developed coping mechanisms, such as recruiting others or suppressing memories, as a means to endure Nygaard's abuse (25:12, 26:00).
• Impact on Families: The psychological toll extended to family members and employees, many of whom remained loyal despite the atrocities, due to manipulative control and fear (38:30, 39:30).

Notable Quote:

"He created massive incentives to make him happy and to not upset him. And he created massive disincentives to keep you from veering from his path."
— Greg Gutzler, Attorney (26:20)

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Legal and Societal Reflections

The episode concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of Nygaard's actions on society and the legal system. It underscores the importance of recognizing and addressing systemic abuses of power and the long-term effects on victims.

Key Points:

• Legal Challenges: The complexity of prosecuting high-profile cases involving manipulation and coercion, especially when victims become recruiters, presents significant hurdles (25:12).
• Societal Responsibility: The narrative calls for greater awareness and support for victims, emphasizing the need for societal change to prevent such abuses of power.

Notable Quote:

"There is a certain degree of numbness. And I think you'll see, Ashley, as they come out of it, they start to become sad, then they get angry, and then you see the numbness go away."
— Greg Gutzler, Attorney (28:12)

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Conclusion

Uncle Peter Episode 3 serves as a chilling exploration of Peter Nygaard's extensive criminal activities and their devastating impact on victims and his own family. Through personal testimonies, legal perspectives, and psychological insights, Ashleigh Banfield paints a comprehensive picture of a tyrant whose legacy of abuse continues to resonate. This episode not only sheds light on Nygaard's heinous actions but also emphasizes the resilience of survivors and the ongoing fight for justice.

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Resources and Support

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, please reach out to your local sexual assault hotline for support and assistance.

Transcript

[Host]

This episode may contain material which may be unsuitable for some listeners.

[Narrator]

Peter Nygaard is a serial sex criminal who openly flaunted horrendous deviant sexual behavior for decades.

[Angela Dyborne]

Star, watch out for her.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

This is your new home right here.

[Peter Nygaard]

Oh, awesome. I'm gonna be here all the time.

[Angela Dyborne]

That's what I want.

[Peter Nygaard]

Come over here.

[Narrator]

At 83, he's spending the remaining years of his life behind bars in Canada.

[Greg Gutzler]

He's been sentenced to 11 years in prison following guilty verdicts on four counts of sex assault going back as far.

[Narrator]

As the late 80s. In January of 2025, he scheduled a face trial again, this time in Montreal on one count of sex assault and forcible confinement. After that, there's another sex assault trial awaiting him in Winnipeg. And once he clears that trial, it's off to New York to face a daunting federal trial in the US and as if that's not enough, there is also a whopping class action civil suit that will kick in once all the criminal litigation wraps up. A suit where, at last count, 135 women alleged that he attacked them too. But these cases only scratch the surface of the rape and sex trafficking that Nygart is alleged to have committed over a half century.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

Peter Nygard.

[Angela Dyborne]

We do the real people. That's our marketplace. You will not find another product as competitively priced as ours.

[Greg Gutzler]

Welcome back to Uncle Peter, a Drop Dead Serious podcast. Thousands and thousands of women who voluntarily went to bed with Peter Nygaard over the years.

[Peter Nygaard]

Yep, thousands, thousands.

[Greg Gutzler]

And how many do we think did not sleep with him voluntarily?

[Peter Nygaard]

Peter, you're in some big territory over.

[Greg Gutzler]

The years, and maybe I dare say thousands.

[Peter Nygaard]

Yeah, no, I think that's a fair number.

[Narrator]

That's Angela Dyborne, Peter Nygaard's niece, a Nygaard Industries employee for decades, and also my childhood best friend. Angela is sharing her story for the first time here on the Uncle Peter podcast. She and I spent hours discussing her life inside the Nygaard family and the Nygaard empire. Her stories are shocking, unpleasant, and at times, downright disturbing. In this episode of Uncle Peter, you'll also hear from Greg Gutzler, the attorney for well over 100 Nygard victims.

[Attorney]

I've talked to all 135 of my clients, and I will tell you this, that I am absolutely certain that there are many, many, many more survivors that are out there.

[Narrator]

The Nygaard clothing empire, built from scratch back in 1967, was once estimated to be worth nearly a billion dollars. But today, Nygaard International is bankrupt. It was liquidated back in 2020. All because of the unbridled ego of its founder and his insatiable appetite for sex, which was often violent and non consensual. Peter Nygaard's MO was to meet beautiful women, sometimes broken beautiful women, and lure them into his jet setting life with the promise of modeling, contracts, parties and often free housing. But it wasn't long before the women realized that beyond the freebies and underneath all that flamboyant charisma and the long floor, glowing feathered blonde hair, was a monster who fed on sex, dominance and utter control.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

My name is Jennifer Gilmer and I was a victim of Peter Nygaard.

[Greg Gutzler]

I sat down with Jenny Gilmer to talk to her about what she says happened to her at Peter Nygaard's luxury resort home in the Bahamas.

[Host]

Thank you so much for doing this. I know this is not easy and so I'm very appreciative. It's hard for me to ask the questions because I feel like it's so invasive, but I think it's important to hear your story. Tell me about your experience with Peter Nygaard.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

Well, it was, you know, seems so long ago now. Sometimes it feels long ago. Sometimes it feels like yesterday I just turned 19. I was vacationing in the Bahamas in Nassau with my family and I just graduated and I was spending the summer in the Bahamas just enjoying myself before I went back to Canada to go to college. And yeah, I was sailing and my mother was there and my younger brother. And during that time I started taking tennis lessons and my mother's boyfriend at the time who lived in the Bahamas actually introduced me to this tennis coach and kind of, you know, suggested was the one that suggested that I start taking tennis lessons. So I thought it was a great idea. So I did. And then this tennis instructor, he started taking me to Niagara Cay. First he started talking about a gentleman called Peter Nygaard and that he would like to play tennis with me sometime. And then he started taking me to Nygard Quay to play tennis. That was the first time I met him.

[Host]

So you meet Peter Nygaard at Nygaard Cay. I'm imagining that you're seeing this opulent resort like home, and it's pretty overwhelming. As a 19 year old.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

Yes, especially a 19 year old from a small town in New Brunswick. It was nothing like I'd ever seen and everyone was very nice. I thought everything was a little strange as well.

[Host]

How did things go from being a 19 year old tennis guest who'd been introduced to Peter by your tennis coach to a situation where you found Yourself literally being raped. When I ask that, it seems so invasive. But at the same time, I think so many people don't understand how quickly things can turn. So to the best of your ability, describe how all of a sudden he went from being this, you know, generous host to being a predator.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

I feel like it was a little bit different for me. I wasn't that girl that was, you know, promised work or modeling gigs or anything like that. That was never my aspiration. I, you know, there was never a thought in my mind to model or anything like that. And those weren't things that were promised to me by him at all. It was just me being left there by my tennis coach and, and I was just, you know, an easy target. I don't even think I was his type during that time. I mean, he would have been in his, you know, 60s, I guess this is in the 90s. And I, you know, I was just this kind of short, you know, kind of plump 19 year old. But he, he did take me to his bedroom. All of the, the rooms at Niagara Key are like tree houses. They're kind of all over the place. And he has his on, on the very top level and it's, it's all glass. And we walked in and he, he took me in there to, you know, to get a drink. He wanted to show me around. When the doors close, everything's locked. It's all glass. You can see out, but no one can see in. And he has a code system on it and it was locked. When you go in to the property, there is security and they just do a security check. And my passport was taken. I was a naive girl from the east coast of Canada, so why would I think that's a problem or a big deal? I'd never experienced anything like that.

[Host]

And so the whole time you were there, you did not have your passport?

[Jennifer Gilmer]

I did not.

[Host]

So he took you to his bedroom to ostensibly tour you around. And what happened next?

[Jennifer Gilmer]

That day he had suggested to my tennis coach that he wanted me to wear a dress. And I thought that was very strange to wear a dress to play tennis. But I did. And, yeah, so he, he brought me over to the bed and asked me to sit down. And at this point I was feeling a little lightheaded. We had had a couple of drinks at the court and I just felt, I felt tired, I felt a little fuzzy. I wasn't a big drinker, so I didn't really know what was happening to me at that point. Um, and he proceeded to, you know, to lift up my dress and. And I asked him to stop, and he did not. And then he. He forced himself on me, and I, you know, screamed for him to stop, and he did not. And at that point, I just. It didn't. I didn't have a lot of strength, and I don't know. I. I don't. I didn't see him put anything in my drink, but I did not have a lot of strength. And everything just seemed a lot harder than it should be. And. And for, you know, for a man of his age, he was. He's actually very strong, and I'm not. I wasn't a very big person either. And unfortunately, he. He did rape me, but he sodomized me. And that was probably the worst pain that I have ever experienced and never want to experience. And that is kind of the day that my life changed and I went numb.

[Host]

I imagine a lot of people don't understand that. Especially when you're, you know, so young, at 19, there's a part of you that just freezes because it's all happening in real time. It's all fine and dandy to look back on it and question anything. But if you're in a circumstance that is playing out in real time, you really just don't know how to react because you're not sure if your reactions are. Are going to be more problematic than the instance you're in.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

That's right. And I was very ashamed. And I think at that point, it's very hard not to blame yourself because you put yourself in that situation. And I was never a girl that, you know, dressed revealingly or, you know, I was always very, you know, conservative and preppy, and I just. I was never that girl. And for me, I. But I felt like I was. At that point, I felt disgusting. I felt ashamed and embarrassed. And those are not the feelings you should have when you're a victim, but we do. And I think for a lot of people, they don't say anything because they're ashamed, embarrassed. You know, they wouldn't want their family to know what had just happened to them. People will look at me differently, and I. I could not handle that. You know, I was there for about. I was kept there for about three weeks. And I was forced not only to be with him, but to be with other people. And I just. I turned myself off.

[Host]

Tell me about that notion. You know, again, people will be confused. You didn't ask to leave right away. Why wouldn't you say, get me my passport. I need to get out of here? People Won't understand the mentality or the feeling or the fear and why you would stay and how you ended up even again with Peter or with others.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

Right, right. And that makes sense. You know, I actually did try to leave. I don't know. You know, Nygaard Cay is in its own gated, you know, area. And then Leifert Key is actually the community, which is another gated area that he lived in. So there was two gates to go through. I did manage to get my hands on a golf cart one day and I tried to go. It didn't go so well. I was turned back and I mean, where am I going to go? I have no money on me. Everything was taken and I don't have a passport. And my experience that I had had with the Bahamian police force while I was there, even before I met Peter, I had been pulled over by a police officer and bit scary. Didn't trust them either. There was so many staff members that were very kind to me. And, you know, before that, Peter was as well, no matter how eccentric he was. I just, I thought that was. It was kind of funny in the beginning. And then. And then he just very quickly became a monster that I was terrified of.

[Narrator]

Terrified of this violent sado masochist. But Peter Nygaard's sex crimes got even darker. Victim after victim describe his enclave in the Bahamas as a place where he trafficked dozens and dozens of women and girls, even to his friends.

[Host]

You touched on the fact that he had trafficked you to others as well while you were there. Tell me about that.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

Peter would have parties. He would fly people in from the States, from Miami, people apparently, that he had met at swingers clubs and things like that. I didn't even know what a swingers club was until. Until that summer. And he would have parties of his. His grotto, and that's kind of where. Where things started. And he would tell me to. To be with certain people, and I didn't know where to go or hide or. And so I did what he told me to do because I turned myself off and I was terrified.

[Host]

He had all the power he did.

[Jennifer Gilmer]

In those moments when I was. When I had to be with other people, I felt safer than any other time I was there because I didn't have to be with him because he was violent, you know, and, you know, to be sodomized by a monster, I would take being. Having sex or being raped by a stranger than having that, and that's a horrible way to compare, but that is how I felt at the Time, Jenny.

[Host]

This is decades later, and it's so palpable that you're still, you know, suffering the residual PTSD from what you've been through. It's such a platitude to say, how are you? But I truly do want to know, how are you? Are you going to be okay? Are things getting better?

[Jennifer Gilmer]

Are things getting better? I don't. That's. That's a very full question. I. I do the best I can. It honestly is a. Day by day. I, for a long time, didn't want to have kids because, well, there's a lot of evil in this world. There's a lot of bad things and bad people out there. And I didn't think I wanted to bring kids into that. And so I was. I was pretty close to 40 when I started having my kids, because I couldn't bear bringing children into a world that I knew could be so evil. And how do I protect them? I can't keep them in bubble wrap and protect them from the world their whole lives. I can't do that. But I can teach them tools to protect themselves.

[Host]

How did you eventually get out of Niagar Key?

[Jennifer Gilmer]

I think it was mid August, everybody. There was just a lot of, kind of chaos around the property. People were packing up. And then I heard that Nygard was. He was leaving. He was going back to the mainland, to the States, I think, and to one of his other properties. And so when he leaves, everybody has to leave. So he. I, eventually he gave me my passport back and I was able to go. And it was such a. That was a scary day too, because I was like, well, who am I now? I leave this property. Where do I go from here? I knew my plans for the fall to go back to Canada, go to school, but who am I? So I got my passport and I left and I. I didn't tell anybody until I think I was probably 31 or 32. Yeah, I left and just kind of turned something off inside of me and pretended it didn't happen because how could I move on with my life holding onto something like that? But I think when you push things back, you can only push them back so far. It affected. It affected my whole life. I, you know, I've had two divorces. I, you know, have, you know, lost some friends along the way. It just affected me for how I can trust. I have trust issues and it's really, really difficult. So it did. I didn't really push it back. I just didn't deal with it. And maybe if I said something when I left that my life would have been a little different. I can't really change that now. But I also have my two wonderful children and the life that we have created, which is wonderful. But I think my life would have been different and I think I would have dealt with the trauma differently because it is hard to go to sleep at night.

[Narrator]

Jenny Gilmer is one of potentially thousands of NYGARD victims. Her lawyer, Greg Gutzler represents 135 and they have all signed on to a class action suit against him.

[Attorney]

I had no idea what I was getting into. I was invited to the Bahamas to meet some people and right when I got there and walked into this conference room, the tone, the atmosphere, the intensity, intensity was palpable. And I realized I'd walked into something that was going to truly change my life. And it did. And I've been dedicated to this for about six years. So yes, I've talked to hundreds of people. I've talked to my amazing clients like Jenny. So it has, it has changed my life.

[Host]

If you had to describe Peter Nygaard in a sentence, what would that sentence be?

[Attorney]

He's a narcissistic serial predator who uses people around him to get everything he wants and to then put people into a position of silence by intimidating them.

[Host]

And when they approach you and tell you their stories, is there much variance between their experiences or is there like a classic MO that they all describe separately?

[Attorney]

There is a classic MO but some of the ways in which he implemented his, his scheme was a little different when he was younger. He was using more physical force and he was very violent. And you, you'll hear stories about that and probably read our complaint where there was a lot of physical violence. As he got older, he started to use different, different type of mechanics where he would recruit young women and you would often abuse them, but he would then use them to lure people in. He would then become more, much more manipulative. He was figuring out ways to coerce them by defrauding them, by promising them things. More like the Harvey Weinstein type of approach where if you do this, I'll get you a career. I'm going to make all your dreams come true. I'll be the father figure you never had.

[Host]

What is the age range of the alleged victims at the time they were assaulted?

[Attorney]

Ages 14 was the youngest that I know of. And in terms of the oldest, I don't, I don't recall any client of mine who was assaulted over the age of maybe 35 or so. So Nygaard was looking for for younger women and girls, they're terrified. And the reason is because he's an older white male with fame. He did have power, and he had political influence. He also gave off an air of, I will do whatever it takes to get away with this. And so when you have that, combined with the social dynamics, the cultural barriers to people reporting, you have a wildly disparate power imbalance. You have young women, girls of the age of 18, often from impoverished backgrounds, without a support system, no one's going to believe them. And he preyed on that. He knew that they were facing so many barriers and so many obstacles. And he was scary because I think he demonstrated he would do anything.

[Host]

To the best of your knowledge, what was Peter Nygaard's typical targets? And as I understand it, it changed through the ages, through the decades. He had a certain type in his 40s, 50s, maybe even 60s. And that.

[Narrator]

That morphed.

[Host]

What. What's your knowledge of that?

[Attorney]

Right.

[Dr. Julian Goger]

So it.

[Attorney]

It. It did morph, and I don't really understand the reason for that, but he did move to black and brown women, and before that, he was more whatever he could find. And that was in the Canadian area and Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, as well as in Los Angeles. So you were finding a different demographic. And my clients range very much in race as well as their age. And real common factor was wherever he could find a victim, he would exploit that opportunity. And he was using people around him to recruit people to keep coming in and coming in. So part of it was the demographics of his recruiters as well.

[Host]

It sounds like the same M.O. of Jeffrey Epstein.

[Attorney]

The difference there is that Epstein used one or two recruiters. Nygaard used dozens, if not hundreds of recruiters over the years to help him meet young women. And the women would feel more comfortable meeting somebody who was of their age, their race, who was being promised something exciting like career. And that's how he really did it. So, yes, he had a lot of people, more than. More than fc. Did.

[Host]

I oscillate between the terms victim and survivor? I think calling people who've endured Peter's wrath survivors is important for purposes of, you know, jurisprudence. The term is typically victim. So everyone will have to forgive me if I go between these victims and survivor terminology, to be clear, and this is hard for, I think, a lot of people to understand victims who end up recruiting others. There is a very different definition, a very different notion about, you know, mens rea. Or culpability. And I'd just love to hear your legal perspective on that.

[Attorney]

You've Just hit on the most complex issue in the case. And I don't necessarily mean legally though that's obviously an interesting issue. Psychologically, it is the most interesting issue to approach in the case because there are certainly dozens of Nygaard victims that became recruiters. And that puts. If you talk about mens rea or the legal terminology there, there is a certain degree of confusion there and I think law enforcement is understandably confused by that. What do you do with that person when you have, let's say she was 16 and she was, she was absolutely tortured, brutally victimized and as a way to survive, she has no other way out. She turns to bringing in other people for Nygaard.

[Host]

But I can see how he was able to co opt a lot of people into his orb and then I can also see how he browbeat certain people as well. There's a, there's a degree, I think you mentioned it, of psychological torture that he exacted on victims and people who worked for him.

[Attorney]

There's no question it built up. And so he created massive incentives to make him happy and to not upset him. And he created massive disincentives to keep you from veering from his path. And it would be so unpleasant that I think people were truly in a PTSD type of survival mode. And when you're trying so desperately to avoid being growl beaten, as you said, and that's probably a nice way of putting it, he would be brutally vindictive and he would retaliate so harshly that he would do anything to survive. And so I can understand people in survival mode, particularly people that are in compromised situations, will do what it takes because on the other side of that, as you said, is the magnanimity and the generosity and the loving father figure that he could portray. He would convey to them your home, you are safe, come with me. But you need to do what I'm asking you to do. And if you don't, there will be harsh repercussions. So when you have that double sided coin, you're going to do what you to do to survive. And that's why I can understand why people got caught in these situations and did things that after they're deprogrammed, and I mean that literally deprogrammed, they think that was a totally different human being. That wasn't me. I was trying desperately to survive. I would never do that in my right mind. But I was terrified. I had no other choice. I had no real choice. And that's what you hear a lot. I had no choice.

[Host]

There were so many People, you know.

[Narrator]

Who came in and out of his.

[Host]

Life in whatever capacity. Sometimes they were girlfriends who ended up as employees, family members, longtime staff members. And they almost look dead in the eyes when they talk about their experiences there.

[Attorney]

You're right. I think there's a certain degree of numbness. And I think you'll see, Ashley, as they come out of it, they start to become sad, then they get angry, and then you see the numbness go away. You see the passion come out. To think, I cannot believe how you compromised me. I cannot believe what you did to me. I cannot believe the things that you made me do. People ask me, how did this happen for so long? Why do some people want to refuse to believe it? I've actually got a theory on that, not a legal theory. My theory is that some. Some people don't want to believe there is that type of evil in this world because they couldn't even go about their day if they knew what Jenny and I know and what, you know, when these people are all around us.

[Greg Gutzler]

What do you think about the accusation that you should have known?

[Peter Nygaard]

I think that that's been a very, like, an unfair one. Because, yes, I did know a lot, but everybody should have known then. If I should have known. Every single person in the company should have known. Every executive should have known. Every person that sat in a budget meeting, that saw the line items in his personal column of the different girls that he was paying a part of the payroll should have known. We all knew there were girls that were sleeping with him, that had positions in the company and were also having sex with Peter. So everybody knew that.

[Greg Gutzler]

Things change over the years, right? Maybe not in the 80s, maybe not even so much in the 90s, but certainly in the 2000s, we started to realize with the complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace, did it dawn on him at any time, hey, maybe I better pull back?

[Peter Nygaard]

I don't think so. I do not believe it. Did I think people would tell him? I think other executives would warn him, hey, I think you're kind of pushing the envelope, or I think this is a little too much.

[Greg Gutzler]

How do you react?

[Peter Nygaard]

He would be. He couldn't be told no one. He would. He reacts violently and like he violent opposition to anything anybody says to them.

[Greg Gutzler]

So not only can you not tell him that he will verbally abuse you for telling him something he needs to.

[Peter Nygaard]

Know or shun you or fire you or, you know, there's like the battery of the minute you stand up against him or say anything against him or challenge him and because he would look at that as a challenge, saying, hey, I don't think you should answer the door naked. He would look that as a challenge, and then it would be your problem. It wind up. Something would be your fault about that statement. And inevitably, you'd either be berated or you'd be let go. You'd be change offices. So that alone is a form of sexual harassment.

[Greg Gutzler]

If you stood up to him, you were in for it.

[Peter Nygaard]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Greg Gutzler]

Even with helpful advice.

[Peter Nygaard]

Even with helpful advice, we. With advice, you're trying to.

[Greg Gutzler]

And he, like, help me help you. And that was met with a verbal barrage.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Peter Nygaard]

If you use the term the law. That was one of his pet peeves. I mean, that would just set him over the edge every time. He had very little respect for the law. He thought he could manipulate the law. The law was something that he knows better than lawyers. Lawyers are the worst people. So if you.

[Greg Gutzler]

His tunnel vision was so rigid that if you even dared to give him a warning about how the law would look at what he was doing, you were the problem.

[Peter Nygaard]

Exactly. And then, because he thinks that, then the multiple lawsuits, too, obviously, the criminal and sexual ones, the civil action or class action in the US in the last five years, four years, are so in the news. But there were hundreds of other little lawsuits on all different. And if it wasn't Peter getting sued, it was Peter suing people.

[Greg Gutzler]

You didn't see the narcissism all the way along.

[Peter Nygaard]

I thought narcissist meant you look. No, I did not understand what narcissist was until I. Until somebody told me that's what Peter was.

[Greg Gutzler]

And then you look back at the 90s and, you know, and I'm like.

[Peter Nygaard]

Oh, my gosh, he's at every category. One day there will be a new category, narcissist, that combines all of them. And you've got Peter's face next to him.

[Greg Gutzler]

A Nygardicist.

[Narrator]

The Nygard empire went into a free fall in 2020. That's when the accusers started coming forward in full force. Their allegations date back as far as the 1970s, and some women say they were as young as 14 and 15 when they were raped. Nygaard's New York City headquarters that was raided by the FBI as part of a criminal sex trafficking investigation. Nygaard was soon arrested and charged, both in Canada and the U.S. but he wasn't the only one to implode. His niece, Angela Dyborne, my childhood best friend, had been on and off the payroll for Nygaard for decades. She ran Uncle Peter's Los Angeles home and his office. And she was at his beck and call night and day. When his world began to crumble, so did hers, but in ways that she never expected.

[Greg Gutzler]

You know, the bankruptcy was coming down, the class action civil suit was starting to cascade, the criminal charges were all coming in. Where did you kind of fit into all that and what did you think was going to happen to you?

[Peter Nygaard]

I didn't think anything. I really, through all this time, and especially through all my work, believed I was doing a job. I was working for Peter. Peter controlled everything and that I wasn't doing anything illegal.

[Greg Gutzler]

So you didn't think that you had exposure?

[Peter Nygaard]

I didn't think I had exposure at all.

[Greg Gutzler]

You kind of watched from the outside thinking, this is horrible, you know, we're all going to lose our jobs, et cetera. But you didn't think that your livelihood was about to be destroyed?

[Peter Nygaard]

I didn't think my life was going to be destroyed. I really didn't. I mean, of course I knew people, I knew I'd been around, but I, you know, even like at first I was like, wait, this is all being fabricated. This is all. This isn't real. This isn't real. What's happening here?

[Greg Gutzler]

You thought you'd lose your job? That's it.

[Attorney]

Yeah.

[Peter Nygaard]

And many other people lose their jobs. The world that we were cast into in the legal system was beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

[Greg Gutzler]

The first thing that kind of hits your doorstep is you're sued by one of his accusers. And it's not a small lawsuit.

[Peter Nygaard]

Yeah. Got a demand letter at first for $25 million, which I know are kind of geared to get your attention.

[Greg Gutzler]

So you respond, oh, 25 million would get anyone's attention.

[Narrator]

A $25 million lawsuit accusing Angela of. Of setting up a former model to be sexually assaulted by Peter Nygaard. Angela was called, quote, a key cog in nygard's vast sex trafficking network. The suit claimed that the model was assaulted in Winnipeg, Canada, while Angela was in charge of Nygaard's Los Angeles home. It was filed in California in November of 2020, and it alleged that Angel Angela personally lured victims for Nygaard to rape, that she paid victims hush money and that she transported them to get abortions and be treated for sexually transmitted diseases.

[Greg Gutzler]

What was the allegation that landed on your doorstep in the civil suit?

[Peter Nygaard]

That I had arranged to have somebody come work for Peter under the guise of modeling. That I picked them up and at the airport in Winnipeg in November 93, that I delivered them to Peter. I left them there. And that the person was raped and held by Peter for a number of days.

[Greg Gutzler]

Against her will.

[Peter Nygaard]

Yeah, against her will.

[Greg Gutzler]

The allegation that was made against you in this lawsuit was that you had facilitated the transport of. Of a person to what she believed was a modeling interview. And she alleges was three days of captivity and rape.

[Angela Dyborne]

Correct.

[Narrator]

When the lawsuit was filed, it made huge headlines, and Angela's life collapsed. She and her children were shunned in the community and at their school. Friends dropped away, jobs were lost. The family became virtual pariahs. What didn't get press was that soon after the suit was filed, it was withdrawn by the accuser, which seemed confusing. If Angela was such a key part of Nygaard's operation, had she played any role in facilitating his crimes? To answer that question, it's important to know what Nygaard's empire was like, how his employees were also considered victims of a sadistic and ruthless tyrant. A tyrant who exacted psychological and financial control throughout his corporate landscape.

[Peter Nygaard]

But you're also to be in that circle and to be part of that, especially in kind of that tighter circle. It's. You're also a victim. You're also somebody that's being equally not raped. Thank goodness. You know, I was a victim, not a rape victim, which I can't even imagine what that situation is, just a different level. But you're absolutely victims.

[Narrator]

And then there's the added complication of being both an employee and a family member in a family that was always fiercely loyal to Peter Nygaard and mostly blind to his ugly side.

[Greg Gutzler]

I asked forensic psychiatrist Dr. Julian Goger for his perspective on the people who.

[Host]

Enabled Nygaard, Peter Nygaard's extended family. They always circled the wagons and they always protected Peter. They always believed that the rumors of transgressions were those who were coming for him and that he was the victim. Does it make sense to you that a family would behave this way? Because a lot of critics believe that his family enabled him?

[Dr. Julian Goger]

Yeah, but if you're going to talk about enabling, we have to talk about what were the family's perceptions about him. Did they understand a person truly? So it would be wrong for us to draw a conclusion and blame family members if we don't know where the family members were coming from. And sometimes things evolve.

[Peter Nygaard]

But.

[Dr. Julian Goger]

But at what point in time did things change? And did people see the change? And how did people react to the changes? And when the changes were on the cusp of breaking the law, did family members see that?

[Host]

And would it Be normal for them to disbelieve it before believing it.

[Dr. Julian Goger]

It's not only the people around him, but family members also can be brainwashed into believing something until the external world says, hey, it ain't the way you saw it. And then reality sets it.

[Greg Gutzler]

Does your therapist say that you're like a PTSD victim, or does your therapist sort of categorize this for you, like what you're living?

[Peter Nygaard]

Absolutely. PTSD trauma. I mean, there is trauma involved. I didn't think about it at the time, and it wasn't necessarily from the beginning days, but through this course of the last, you know, 40 years, being so tied to his life, being a family member and being very much in that inner circle of his life.

[Angela Dyborne]

Jesus Christ, you just continue to run around with these fucking stupid excuses. What don't you get?

[Peter Nygaard]

There is. There's a lot of trauma. There's a lot of just shutting down and forgetting. I'm still, though, not the same kind of victim. The same. So I feel guilty almost feeling bad about this. I'm at the point where, yeah, our life is devastated, but I feel guilty even feeling bad, you know, because there's so much worse that he's done to other people that I can still one day move away, change my name, move on.

[Angela Dyborne]

It's chaotic, Angela. It is chaotic. The way you as motive, run that, please.

[Narrator]

Were Angela and other Nygaard employees accomplices or victims? You may think, you know, but before casting judgment, you're going to want to hear the things that Peter said and did to all of them.

[Angela Dyborne]

What the. Was the picture all about me? Jesus Christ, you guys are ignorant.

[Narrator]

A tyrant of epic proportions. On the next episode of Uncle Peter.

[Angela Dyborne]

I got three times now you've been.

[Greg Gutzler]

Listening to Uncle Peter, a drop dead serious podcast. If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, please, please call your local sexual assault hotline.