Billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon has emerged victorious in his prolonged defamation lawsuit against former fashion tycoon and convicted sex offender Peter Nygard, who allegedly spread false information about Bacon during a public dispute over their neighboring properties in the Bahamas. Manhattan Judge Richard Latin issued a ruling stating that Nygard had confessed to lacking any evidence to support his accusations against Bacon, which included labeling Bacon as a murderer, drug trafficker, and white supremacist. Bacon, in his legal action, denounced Nygard’s assertions as blatant falsehoods.
Peter Sverd, Nygard’s attorney, announced that Nygard intends to persist in contesting the lawsuit and plans to pursue an appeal. Meanwhile, representatives for Bacon, the founder of Moore Capital Management, did not respond immediately to inquiries for comment.
Nygard, the founder of Nygard International and formerly a prominent figure among Canada’s wealthiest individuals, is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence in Canada for sexual assault. The discord between Bacon and Nygard stemmed from their residency as neighbors within an exclusive gated community in the Bahamas, where tensions escalated due to Nygard’s attempts to expand his property, a move vehemently opposed by Bacon.
In his 2015 lawsuit, Bacon accused Nygard of spearheading a relentless and malicious defamation campaign aimed at unjustly associating Bacon with crimes such as arson, bribery, drug trafficking, affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, and murder. Nygard faced legal repercussions in Toronto in 2023, where a jury found him guilty on four counts of sexual assault while acquitting him on a fifth count of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement. Nygard has consistently refuted all allegations against him.