Who is Louis Bacon? Peter Nygard says rape allegations against him are 'smear campaigns' by billionaire neighbor
At least ten unnamed women have alleged they were raped by Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygård — with nine of them claiming the assaults took place at his island estate in the Bahamas. However, could the salacious claims against Nygård be the "by-product" of a feud he had with his billionaire neighbor?
"Scandalous allegations. They are false allegations. Totally false. And they are being vigorously denied by Peter Nygård," his lawyer Jay Prober says on the first episode of Discovery's 'Unseamly: The Investigation of Peter Nygård.' According to Nygård's lawyers, the allegations are a by-product of a decade-long feud with his bohemian neighbor and New York billionaire Louis Bacon.
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Lyford Cay in New Providence Island is one of the oldest and most exclusive gated communities in the world. There are only around 450 homes in the neighborhood ranging anywhere between $2 to over $100 million. There are a handful of very large plots on the beach, and the Bacons and Nygårds own two of those next to each other. Nygård moved in first in the year 1984, and Bacon became his neighbor in 1994.
"The two could hardly have a more different aesthetic approach," journalist Jonathan Shazar told producers. "Bacon likes his homes to fit into the landscape; There's an understatement to the way he likes to live. Meanwhile, there really could be nothing more overstated than Nygård Cay."
According to Shazar, Bacon had said his relationship with Nygård was a bit of a headache but they were fairly cordial. In fact, there were no problems for the first decade of their living next door to one another. The billionaire battle of the Bahamas is a relatively well-known story and was covered by major outlets including Vanity Fair. Winnipeg Free Press reporter Ryan Thorpe noted how it all began with a "puddle in the driveway."
In order to get to Nygård's property, one had to use a shared driveway through Bacon's property. Nygård, being a fashion mogul, was known for throwing lavish parties for thousands of people in his sprawling 4-and-half acre home in the Bahamas that was built to look like a Mayan temple. Guests to Nygård Cay would often park on the shared driveway, but on Bacon's property.
In 2007, Bacon had the driveway rebuilt, such that there was a dip that caused significant puddling, basically turning it into a mosquito-infested swamp that Nygård's guests had to trudge through wearing rubber boots. The Canadian fashion magnate sued the hedge fund manager for the same, and problems between them only escalated thereafter.
Louis Bacon is one of the most successful hedge fund managers on Wall Street and is worth nearly a billion and a half dollars. "From a personality standpoint, [Bacon] is almost the polar opposite of Nygård. He seems to be kind of a very buttoned-down, reserved individual, and I think that is part of what led to the initial dispute — a quiet reserved individual on one side of this driveway, and on the other side you have a party animal," Thorpe explained.
The feud escalated when Nygård wanted to rebuild his home after an electrical fire in 2009. Bacon, at the time, allegedly tried to block him alleging environmental concerns. Nygård subsequently went on an all-out offensive against Bacon, filing tens of lawsuits citing a variety of disputes. The fashion tycoon even engaged in a sinister smear campaign against his neighbor, creating doctored videos and fake news stories that painted Bacon as a racist and linked him to the KKK.
Bahamans have witnessed the dispute between the two men play out for years, according to Rev. C.B. Moss, an environmentalist and well-known critic of Nygård. "The backdrop is two non-Bahamians living in an exclusive area apparently... at odds with each other," Moss told CBC News in an interview last year. "If these incidents did occur over a period of time it was a well-kept secret … People are still trying to come to grips with it," the local church leader said of the sexual assault allegations against Nygård. Nygård, however, continues to deny all of the allegations. According to him, they are part of a smear campaign launched by his disgruntled neighbor.
In December, Bacon addressed the rape allegations in a statement after they emerged in a bombshell New York Times piece. "I admire the brave women who had the courage to share their stories with The New York Times," he said. "I was not looking for this fight, but once I heard repeated, credible reports from disgusted whistleblowers that Mr. Nygård was abusing young, vulnerable women, I could not ignore this disturbing information."
The disturbing allegations brought on by scores of alleged victims have since rocked the fashion industry and dominated headlines and editorials in the Bahamas. One editorial in The Bahamas Tribune argued that the New York class-action suit filed against Nygård "shows our failings as a nation." "Peter Nygård's story — if proved to be true — is one that will shock and appall with the nature of the alleged offenses," the newspaper wrote. "But it will be even worse if we allow these claims to play out in New York while sitting here doing nothing, pretending it's nothing to do with us. It's time to act."
'Unseamly: The Investigation of Peter Nygård' premieres exclusively on discovery+ from Friday, February 5.