Uncover - S9 "Evil By Design" E3: Richette

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

If girls and women had been abused at Nygard Cay, Richette Ross would be key in exposing those secrets. The former employee tells us what she witnessed; why she worked for Nygard for as long as she did; and how someone can be an accomplice, whistleblower, and a victim. This is Uncover: Evil By Design. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/evil-by-design-transcripts-listen-1.5886427

Hey there, I'm Elamin Abdelmahmoud. I am the host of Commotion. You know when there's that thing that's like all over your social feeds, or maybe a new movie or a show on Netflix that everyone is talking about, or maybe your favorite artist just dropped a new song or new album. These are the moments when I love to gather the smartest, funniest people together. We get them in the group chat, and then we dig into the culture that is all around us. And commotion does this every single day. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. The following episode contains difficult subject matter and graphic accounts of sexual assault.

Please take care. and graphic accounts of sexual assault. Please take care. It's breathtaking when you enter the key. It's a beautiful ambience at the entrance. Rochette Ross first walked through the gates of Nygaard Key in 2009. I was greeted by a lady in his front office. She told me that he wanted a massage.

In her mid-twenties, Rochette was already an experienced massage therapist when she interviewed for a new job at Nygaard Key, massaging Peter Nygaard. So they set up a table. I went up and I went in. I did my session. Peter Nygaard. So they set up the table. I went up and I went in. I did my session. And after I was done,

he told me that he wanted his third leg massaged. And me being smart, knowing exactly what he meant, I said, the last time I checked, humans only had two. He said, so you don't massage third legs? So I said, no, I don't. And he said, okay, I understand completely.

And he got up off the table. He went and he sat down to his computer table. No other words, and I just left. When I came downstairs, I was informed that he was most impressed with the treatment that I gave him and he would like to take me on as his personal massage therapist. Over time, Richette became a trusted confidant to Peter Nygaard and a witness to the darkness at his island paradise.

It was in the smoke and mirrors that I originally saw when I came in. Everything was just a giant illusion. As time went on, I realized it wasn't really a job. It was just a giant whorehouse. I'm Timothy Sawa, and this is Evil by Design. Episode 3, Rochette. Once Nygaard lost the environmental fight over the beaches, slapped with substantial fines and jail time, it became clear he was also losing his political sway in the Bahamas.

The next big domino to fall would be Rochette Ross. The decision she made would eventually unlock the secrets that had been hidden for decades. What really happened behind the gates of Nygaard Key. It took a lot for me to come forward. of Nygaard Key. It took a lot for me to come forward. It isn't like you're just talking about a mere man.

You're talking about a man that's powerful. He's a multi-millionaire that you have watched over the years. His money have reached very far places. I've seen this. This money has reached very far places. I've seen this. I've spoken to Rochette several times in the last year, often by phone. But the first time we met in person was in the Bahamas in the early days of 2020.

We rented a gated home on the edge of a lake for the interview. We wanted privacy. When she arrives, Rochette has long platinum hair and dramatic makeup. Her eyes are steely and intense. There's only one way to describe her. Fierce. I'm stronger and I'm wiser. I'm more steady. I'm not easily to be manipulated. I'm not easily to be pushed in a direction that I don't want to be in. I know who I am. I know where I stand. I know what I'm capable of doing. Back in 2009, when Rochette arrived for her job interview,

she wasn't naive about her potential new boss. I had heard rumors and I didn't want to pass up the job because what I've heard I said if anything I would know for myself when I get there what is what. She and her family had fallen on hard times.

She needed the work. At the time, you know, we were in recession and so unable to buy certain things, food, be able to keep your lights on. It was a really rough time. When I started working for Mr. Nygaard, I thought it was a blessing. And at first, she and Peter Nygaard got along well. Upon me arriving there, he got familiar with me very quickly.

And after I informed him of my financial status, certain things that were going on in my life, he was like, I can assist you, I'd like to help you. He inquired about my mother and what she did for a living. I told him at the time, my mother's a seamstress slash designer. That's where our relationship clicked. Because I told him I started sewing at the age of five, and ever since then, I could basically cut and put anything together freehand.

So we got to talking about designs and fabric blends and ideas, and our relationship just blossomed from there. Everything did seem okay at first, and I found that a lot of times that people would try to keep me in one area of the key, they wouldn't allow me to leave out of the room that I worked in. After Mr. Nygaard got comfortable with me during our massage sessions, he would start to confide in me with a lot of things that were going on in his life. I think at one or two occasions he tried me to see if I would repeat it or if he would

have back certain ends, but he never did. I felt as if he trusted me because I was nonchalant about a lot of things that was going on around the key. I would try to mind my business and not get involved in what was going on. You avoided it, is that what you were saying? Yes, at all costs. I tried to stay out of it. So that's how I ended up building my relationship with him. As Nygaard and Rochette grew closer, she was exposed to more of what went on at the key,

including his famous weekend pamper parties. Most females here in the Bahamas, they would like to get pedicures and manicures and massages and, you know, enjoy the boat ride and the ambience of being in Leifert Key. Leifert Key in itself is a secluded area for the rich and famous. And most Bahamians, that's where they would like to be successful. They would like to be what they lead. Rochette vividly remembers how the daytime party would devolve into something very different at night.

When the girls come on the key, everybody is normal. They're just enjoying the ambience, taking selfies, pictures. And after a few drinks at the bar, everybody just gets really, really wild. It's not like Bahamians to act out of character like that. Because I remember at one Pacific Femper Party, there was females in the jacuzzi performing oral sex on one another on the edge, and I'm talking about right where everybody else was. The bar is like two feet away where people are ordering drinks,

and they're performing oral sex on one another. where people are ordering drinks, and then they're performing oral sex on one another. Then Rochette learned how methodical Nygaard was about who got invited. He has an A, B, and a C class list. After we finish with the A class list, we move on to the B class and the C class. It depends on who confirms their invite. Some of them that he'd met before, and then he would always encourage the young ladies to invite a friend. So newbies, when they come, we would take pictures of them,

get their personal information, Facebook, WhatsApp, the numbers so we could be able to contact them when he comes back in town for future references. And she saw who Nygaard. So you have this whole illusion that is painted to them that you could do so much better than you're doing now if you do what he asks. But Rochette saw those illusions shattered time and again.

The reality is that after Nygaard has his way with them, he just throws them aside like they're nothing. I've seen on numerous occasions females come and they are told that they're going to be the next top model. He's going to use their face on his next branding of material that comes out and he takes them and he forgets them just just as quick as they come as quick as they go. He encouraged them to perform sexual favors for him even if he can get you to involve a friend, he would do that. And after he's done with you, he gives you a few hundred dollars and he doesn't fulfill any of his promises.

Basically, it was something set up to lure girls in for him to have sex with them. It wasn't the pamper party that he described when he cuts out his bulletins. It was anything but that. Rochette says if a girl or a young woman wasn't willing to comply, staff encouraged her, or worse. Some of the females, they went there willingly, but there was others that were coerced. They were basically lured in by workers. What they would do is, if they know that Nygaard loves or likes a particular female,

they would go to her and they would tell her, my boss likes you. If you sleep with him, he will give you this and he will give you that, mostly pertaining to money. And if a female says no, workers would literally drug her and get her prepped for when Nygard is ready to go up with her. When she comes to the bar for a drink, that's when they drug her. I knew for sure at one particular occasion, when I was coming up to the bar,

I saw the bartender drop a pill while she was handing the female her drink. It was in the middle of his finger. And when he handed her the drink, he dropped it in. And I said, but did you just put in that girl drink? And he told me, that's a party pill. For women and girls lured away during pamper parties, escape was often impossible. I could remember a bohemian girl going up to Nygaard's room, and she didn't want to have sex with him. And she managed to get out. She was naked, and she ran straight to the gate, and she tried to climb it. And his bodyguard came, and he dragged her down the fence, and he carried her back. Some of the girls that would come there, their breasts

wasn't even developed. You could look at them and see that they're on the edge. Rochette says it was more common for Nygaard to invite young girls to the key for more private events. I have seen many girls come up there, many girls in that age bracket, especially through the week. He doesn't usually have them come Pampa Party days. Some of them do, but through the week when he has dinners, you would see them come four, five, six, sometimes right up to eight girls a night.

They come and they have dinner with them. They play poker. And whoever he feels is his favorite, he takes up this room. While many at the key were young women and girls from the islands, company for Nygaard was also brought in from elsewhere. His VIP girls are usually the ones that he brought in from the States. Then you have his VIP girlfriends. Those are the ones that everybody knows, that, hey, this is his girlfriend. When you see her, she receives special treatment.

They travel with him, but the girls tend to change a lot. He mistreats them sometimes, so they don't come back for about three, four months, and then they'll pop back up. Some of the girls aren't treated nicely. Between the verbal abuse, mental abuse, they're held hostage. Their passports are automatically taken from them and are put in a safe in the front office. For you to leave, Mr. Nygaard has to say, you can leave. If he doesn't purchase your ticket for you to leave, you don't go anywhere.

Unless you come with cash and you contact the U.S. Embassy, there is no leaving. And any employee that intends to open up that gate and let you out will be terminated on site. Rochette saw her role at Nygaard Key far exceed the job description. I originally had been hired to be a massage therapist, and I ended up being a psychiatrist to many of the girls. When they go through whatever it is that they go through with them,

they always tend to lean on my shoulder. I also had a lot of instances where females would come down from his room, distorted, unsure of what basically happened the night before, and they would talk to me, could you assist me, I need help. As her relationship with Nygaard grew, Rochette was promoted to household manager, overseeing his estate and his guests. She found herself deeper and deeper within Nygaard's inner circle. I ended up building a relationship with him at the point where he himself, when he got on my massage table, would start to share his innermost darkest secrets. I tried to keep my nose clean. I dot my I's and I cross my D's because I was trying not to be a victim, trying not to be

in anyone's way. Among the hundreds of girls and young women who entered Nygaard Quay, Rochette has no doubt that some wanted to trade sex for money. But she knew for many others this wasn't the case. Rochette was not only Peter Nygaard's employee, but confidant for five years,

during which he is accused of abusing scores of girls and young women. So we had to ask her, when was the moment you said, enough is enough? In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs.

And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Well, it became too much for me when Mr. Nygaard decided that he wanted to have a camp at Nygaard Quay for minor kids. It was like a hundred or more kids come up to Nygaard Quay and they did events there. Despite the increasing notoriety of the pamper parties and private dinners,

Peter Nygaard threw charitable events for kids at the quay. Nygaard fed and provided amenities for the kids, girls and boys. And in that crowd was my sister. Now she is 19. Then she was about 14, 13 or 14. At first, I was an alarm because I was there to watch over her. I said that, you know, I'm a big sister. I'm not going to allow anything to happen. And during a particular lunch break, I was asking his grandkids, because my sister has a very good relationship with his grandchildren. And this particular time, I came out and I was asking his granddaughter, where's my sister? And she said, she don't know. And I find that quite odd because they are foot to foot behind one another. And I found that very strange. So immediately I started to search the compound

to look for her. I went out through the kitchen back door and I bucked Mr. Nygaard taking my sister in her swimsuit up to his room. Bear in mind, my sister is very young. We come from a church home. She doesn't understand the real world. I asked her, where are you going? She said, Mr. Nygaard said that he wants me to model a Nygaard slim for him.

All of my sister's life, that all she wanted to do was to be a model. To this day, that's what she does. She's still a model. And when I saw that and I looked at him, he didn't say anything. I told her, I said, go back to the beach. But I didn't want her to know that this man was going to take you to try to take your innocence. And when she left, I looked at him and he looked at me and he gave me this smirk. And it isn't that he doesn't know what my list is to mean to me.

I had her from, she was two weeks. She's basically my child. And when he did that, everything in me just left. Because you didn't just cross a line. You just blatantly disrespect everything in me. You broke everything.

blatantly disrespect everything in me. You broke everything. There was no words right then and then, but my demeanor, everything changed. But still, Rochette returned to work. At that time, I was the only breadwinner in my home. I had six dependents. Relying on her were her kids, her mother, her younger sister, and her mother's husband.

I didn't say much about it because I realized that in the Bahamas, no job is going to pay me what my God is paying me to do what I do. So I didn't say anything at the time to him, but our relationship, everything changed. As time went on, he would ask me, or I would be asked to pick up girls and I would tell him no. And immediately defiance is not acceptable on Nygaard King. If Nygaard asks you to jump, you ask him how high, where to land and in what position. You don't tell Nygaard no. And that's when our problem came about.

For years, Rochette says she escaped a fate common on Nygaard Key. She hadn't been assaulted. She hadn't become a victim. But one day in 2014, she says it was made clear to her that no one, not even the most loyal, is off limits. What she's about to describe is difficult to listen to, but she wants people to upon me getting ready to go into a massage session i had one of mr nygaard girlfriends she gave me a glass of wine she told me rachette have something to drink because he was here for like two months straight i was working almost 24 hours shifts and she can see that I was really having a rough time that day. I usually don't drink on the job and I was like, no, I don't,

I'm not interested in that. And she handed it to me because she really was insisting that I drink this cup of wine. I actually just threw it back and I dashed through the back door of the kitchen up to Nygaard's room. When I got up there, I noticed that, you know, you're running. So my heart rate was up, and everything. When I came there, I saw that my bed had already been set up, and that was not normal. So I just had a seat on the edge of Mr. Nygaard's bed. He was on a call with one of the girls from downstairs. I could hear the conversation.

And I noticed that one of my arms started to get dead. Like, my brain is sending signal to my arm to move, but it's not moving. And I noticed even after sitting down there for a while, my heart is still racing. And I found that very abnormal. And I remember turning to tell him, I'm not feeling well. And that's the last thing I remember. I was in and out of consciousness. I remember the first time I opened up my eyes,

my bottoms were removed. I was laying on my back, and Mr. Nagat has a mirror over his bed, so I could have seen what he was doing to me. He was performing oral sex on me. And I remember blacking out for a while, and when I opened up my eyes again, he was on top of me. I knew that he was penetrating me because I could have feel.

I also felt he couldn't really move me around how he wanted to. And then I remember blacking out. And when I opened up my eyes again, I remember three of us girlfriends in the room, standing by the bed. Rochette says she lost track of time. She remembers that when she arrived at the bedroom for the massage, it was still light outside. And when she gathered herself to leave, it was nighttime. So whatever it is they gave me, I was there for quite a while. I remember when I got up, my pants was across the room. I got up and I put it on and when I was leaving he came up to me

and he had a handful of US hundred dollar bills it was already rolled up and he pushed it in my hand and I looked at him and I just hurry up hit the button to get out and I went down and he went straight in my jeep when I sit down I remember it was 9 30 so I just turned on my She told no one what had happened. happened. The next day, I remember him calling to find out if I had came back to work. I came because I didn't have a choice. It was hard for me being, like I said, the only breadwinner in my home. It was hard for me to make up my mind to quit my job. I did not have the help that I needed when it comes to supporting not just my children. At the time, we were trying to recover from a recession, so things were... things weren't good yet. Rochette returned to Nygaard Key,

but struggled to get back to work. Later on that week, he came down because I was avoiding him. He would request that I come up to do massages, and I was not coming up. And when he saw me, he said, I don't want you to take personal what happened the other day. These things happen. And he told me that he wanted me to start

to perform sexual favors for him on a regular. And I told him no. After telling him no, at that end of the week, when he left, I was removed from the schedule. Rochette tried to find work outside of Nygaard's organization, but says he used his influence to block her attempts. In the end, she says she had no choice but to return to Nygaard for work, to support her family, even after she was raped. But the tasks demanded of her had changed.

I have dropped monies not just to law enforcement but to political members. When I did what I did for Mr. Nygaard, I did it because I didn't really have a choice. Mr. Nygaard, I did it because I didn't really have a choice. We've previously heard about Nygaard's relationship with Bahamian police and politicians. Rochette confirms that relationship was bought. And she says she was regularly enlisted to help. There was a situation where Mr. Nyga had had us order two kits of fish. And he had them thawed inside the kitchen.

And he had me and two notorious gangsters here in Nassau stuff the fish with about $150,000 in cash. U.S. After we stuffed the fish, we dropped them back down in the bags and freezed them. The next night, me and the two gentlemen, we went to this particular parliamentarian house to deliver them. That was one occasion. The other was where he had me pick him up from the airport. And he came with five of his VIP girls. I remember each of the girls came off with two Niagara Key bags,

and he asked me to drop the girls to the key. And he rode in the front seat of my Jeep. And after we dropped him off, he told me he needs me to take him somewhere. I'm like, sir, it's one o'clock in the morning. Where are we going? So he said, I'll direct you. He took me to this track road off of Jaws Beach. Waiting for them, she says, was the vehicle of a senior member of government.

I killed my headlights. And Niagara told me that he's going to go out, give him a few minutes. Whilst he came out of the Jeep, I opened up the bag that was in the back seat. And in each of the bags, at least one of them that I opened, had stacks of $10,000 U.S. cash in the bag. Rochette says the recipient of that cash came and took the bags from the back seat, and the purpose of the transaction was made clear to her when Nygaard returned from the dark.

When he came back, he said, I hope that this would encourage him to give me my permit. back. He said, I hope that this would encourage him to give me my permit. Nygaard's home had recently been damaged by a fire, and he needed permission to rebuild. Aside from these examples, Rochette says she rarely knew the reasons behind the payments she was delivering. All I was given directives to do was to make sure this amount of money gets to this political person, or this amount of money gets to this inspector. But she says there were people in the police force who Nygaard insured always had their money. It helped them by any female coming in claiming that they were raped or human trafficked or kidnapped,

there would never be an official police report. It would always be something where Mr. Nygaard know where the female lived, where she was either intimidated or paid off to disappear. And that's what their job was, that anybody come in making any claims against Mr. Nygaard, they would intervene and correct before it hit social media or anywhere else. Through his lawyer, Nygaard vehemently denies all of Rochette's allegations, saying that they are all lies. We also asked the police in the Bahamas about accusations of bribery of the force. We never received a response. We also asked the police in the Bahamas about accusations of bribery of the force.

We never received a response. The Bohemian Police Commissioner has in the past refused to answer direct questions citing U.S. criminal proceedings. Although he said publicly, quote, we have not received any complaints about complicity of any officers of the Royal Bahamas Police. Rochette makes some explosive claims, and much of it is difficult to corroborate. But she did show me pay stubs from Nygaard Key, proving her employment there, and photos of her on the estate and on Nygaard's boat. She also showed me three months of bank statements from 2016. There were five deposits from Nygaard's company, totaling nearly $60,000.

I could see that shortly after, she'd made large cash withdrawals. Rochette says the money was funneled through her account, for her to pay the politicians and police. Of course, there are uncomfortable questions to be asked about just how complicit Rochette was in Nygaard's operations. She was an insider with knowledge of Nygaard's sexual assaults and what she understood to be bribery. And throughout her employment, Rochette drove girls and women to and from

Nygaard Quay. On the ride up from there, a lot of them disclosed what had happened to them. But I could not help them because the same people they would have had to go to to say this transpired to me is the same people that I dropped monies off to to make sure that those stories never come to the light of day. But Rochette says she tried to help as best she could.

I remember another incident where a female came down and it was her birthday. I'd never forget that because I knew this would be a day she would never forget. She was celebrating her birthday with some of her friends on the key, and she had been raped. She came down, and she was bald naked, nothing she had on. And it wasn't like it was 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. The key was still full of people. I had to take off my pants from underneath my uniform to give up. Well, you could say just because someone is a kinder accomplice than others

doesn't make them any less of an accomplice. You could also say context is everything. Do you ever think about whether you could have helped people sooner, done something sooner? If I did, nothing would have come out of it. My voice would have fell on deaf ears, just like many others long before me put in their reports and put in their complaints. It had to be help from outside of the country to come in to rectify the situation. of the country to come in to rectify the situation.

I think one question people ask, and probably you know the answer better than anyone, how was this able to stay a secret for so long in the Bahamas? His money. You have to understand that this country has been bought and at the price of many young girls, many women. It's many still out there that are afraid to come forth to say anything. Many of them are afraid to the point where they relocated from out of Nassau when they were sharing all of this was coming about. They relocated from out of Nassau when they was hearing all of this was coming about. For you to be afraid enough to pack up everything that you want and leave a place that you know and love to go elsewhere, that speaks volume of the level of fright that you're experiencing.

People who don't live in the Bahamas, maybe they visited, maybe they've been there for a holiday, maybe they've just seen pictures, they see the palm trees in the hotels. Is there another side to the Bahamas that visitors don't see? There's a lot of sides of the Bahamas that visitors don't see. The majority of the tourists who come here, they don't know anything about anything. What don't they know? They don't know that I would call this little place on the level of corruption, the devil's backyard. Anything goes here.

You could come and you could play. That's why you see a lot of people tend to come here to do certain things that, because we don't have that much loss. So certain things that they can't do over there, they run over here to do. Do you think that's what attracted Mr. Nygaard to the Bahamas? I know that's what attracted him here.

How do you know that? Because he spoke about it. Rochette recalls overhearing Nygaard on the phone one day with an ultra-rich American, encouraging him to come set up shop in the Bahamas. He was telling him this is the place to be. He was telling him this is the place to be. When you want to do certain things, you have access to young kids at your exposure. Some parents, yeah, they're not the best parents.

And then you have some parents who allow their children to work summer jobs, and they try to train them to be independent in the workforce. And, well, they come across creatures like Nygaard. He was saying, if you get a home and you spend $500,000 or $1 million into the country, you're automatically entitled to residency. And he was telling him about the girls and their sexies, talking about the sexy bohemian girls because Russell Nygaard loved dark women, but he doesn't treat them with respect.

Years later, Rochette still recalls her rape with a mix of fury and determination. At times, she speaks about Nygaard as if she's speaking to him. You have no respect for me. You have no respect for the Bahamian people. You have no respect for human beings in general. You didn't just hurt me. You took a part of me that I never was willing to give you you didn't just hurt and degrade me you made me feel less than a human and then for you to fix

him out to tell me don't take it personal how could I not take it personal when you violate a personal part of me it was like I was a piece of meat to you. And then when you were done doing what you did to me, you turned around and discarded me like I was garbage. And with that being said, he didn't just only break me, he also built me. Because if that didn't happen to me, I would have never had the heart to step forward to say, this is what transpired.

I would have never had the heart to put the amount of women that I did together to speak up against you. Eventually, Rochette left Nygaard Key for good. And when she did, she was armed with countless secrets and a wealth of information against her former boss. It took time, but she cautiously reached out to none other than Fred Smith, the human rights lawyer who had been working with a band of conservationists to take on Peter Nygaard. This was around the time that Fred began to hear rumblings

about a disturbing pattern of sexual violence at Nygaard Key. A few people started to share information about women being abused at Nygaard Key sexually. Rochette was one of those informants. Fred Smith never reached out to me in reference to any of this I went looking for him She, like many other Bahamians by the end of 2016 into 2017 saw the writing on the wall about who was going to win the next election

which in May 2017 ended with an absolute landslide against the PLP. With Nygaard's influence over the country's politicians waning, Rochette felt safe coming forward. It was a lot of things that I wanted to just get off my chest that I wanted to talk to him about. Rochette would become a key witness. And crucially, she was still in contact with other survivors. I went to Mr. Smith and I started talking to him. He just basically asked me, do I know any girls?

He never asked me to recruit anybody. And I told him, yes, I do know. Would you like to meet them? That's how me and Mr. Smith's relationship grew. When I brought the girls in to talk with him, he gathered information and he listened to them. And I did a lot of drop off and pick up. So I know where each of the girls lived. I know them by name.

So I know who each of the girls lived. I know them by name. So I know who things had happened to, and I knew where to find them. As Fred encountered more and more women with allegations of rape, the environmental non-profit he belonged to started giving some victims financial support. This organization was partly funded by Louis Bacon, Nygaard's billionaire former neighbor in the Bahamas. You'll remember that the two Lyford Key residents had been feuding for years, and Nygaard maintains Bacon has been spearheading a conspiracy to ruin his reputation. Rochette receives support from that nonprofit.

Yes, and that only was to pay my overhead expenses after my vehicle was broken into, and that was basically to cover my rent. Those payments, including $5,000 monthly for rent and living expenses and the connection to Louis Bacon, have muddied the waters. Nygaard and his representatives claim they're proof that his enemies are paying women to lie about being abused. It's a counterclaim Rochette firmly denies. I have never been paid by Mr. Bacon to lie, to find anybody to lie on Mr. Nygaard. The only thing that I was ever given

was a secure place to live after the fact that my vehicle was broken into. And shortly after I relocated, the apartment that I was living in was shot up. So if I was still living there, what would have become of me? What would have become of my kids? Dealing with this situation with Mr. Nygaard is very serious.

Because you're not just touching a multi-millionaire. You're touching the Bahamas government. You're touching the police force. Two of the biggest gangs in Nassau. With information from Rochette and several other witnesses, Fred and his colleagues took the allegations to the police in the Bahamas. Six women in total reported they'd been raped, though two would later recant.

It would present another blow to Rochette's credibility. In February of 2020, the New York Times published an in-depth story about Bacon, Nygaard, and allegations of rape. The Times reported that after months of interviews with accusers, a pair of sisters took back their stories of being raped by Nygaard at 15 and 10 years old. The Smith sisters claimed Rochette had paid them to lie, promised them a huge settlement, and coached them on Nygaard's bedroom layout and specific desires. Rochette also flat out denies this. I would like to clarify that I never paid them. They were never coerced into saying anything about Mr. Nygaard.

And I heard what they're saying, and I believe personally that they're just running scared. They were unsure of how all of this would play out due to the fact that there was other people before them that came forth and nothing ever came out of it and I felt as if they ran because in a conversation that I had with Miss Smith she told me, Richette, they don't believe us they don't think that this happened to us

I think they're just afraid They don't think that this happened to us. I think they're just afraid. And in a way, I don't blame them, because they know, everybody knows the power that Nygaard has here in the Bahamas. Everybody knows. He bought a whole government. He bought a whole island. And nobody has the gall to step in to tell him no.

Nygaard would later rely on these vulnerabilities as more evidence that all the allegations against him were paid for lies. That said, in 2019, the Royal Bahamas police had launched a criminal investigation. Around the same time, the FBI began to interview those involved. Then, Fred introduced a number of Bahamian women to American lawyers Lisa Habba and Greg Gutzler. As we began delving into it and started looking at the individual testimony of each victim, looking into the witnesses and quickly realized the capacity we were dealing with. So we went from looking at a rather complex scheme into an extraordinary

international scheme with magnitudes of people being harmed. It really opened my eyes to the sophisticated, sinister network that was set up with so many people. It's almost like a pyramid scheme where he would just keep building from the bottom and keep moving up. This is by far the worst case that I've ever seen. I've seen a number of different traffickers operate in the different methodologies that exist in trafficking. And this was by far the most sinister, the most perverse, and the most violent of all of the trafficking endeavors I've seen accomplished. The number of women accusing Nygaard rose steadily. Ten women filed a civil class action lawsuit in New York yesterday.

They're seeking damages for the rapes, which allegedly took place between 2008 and 2015. Six of the women were 14 and 15 years old at the time. The secrets of Nygaard Key had finally been exposed. But the stakes couldn't have been higher. Rochette says it was terrifying for the women who joined the suit. says it was terrifying for the women who joined the suit. A lot of them didn't want to come forward because they were like, Rashad, this man is going to do this to me.

You know, a lot of people were afraid. And the fateful few who was brave enough to face Mr. Nygaard, well, those are the Jane Doe-ers that you see today. And you're one of them. Yes. You'll have realized by now that Rochette has given up her anonymity. In fact, she was one of the first Bahamian women to publicly attach her name

to an allegation of sexual assault against Peter Nygaard. to an allegation of sexual assault against Peter Nygaard. I feel good that I could inspire many others to stand up against him, you know, because he's done a lot of wrong. He's disrespected a lot of people on so many different levels, violated them. If I was his friend, I found out that he wasn't mine. For him to feel comfortable enough to violate me, knowing that I was that close to him

and I knew so much about him, it's like he didn't care what I knew because his money always solved his problems. And for him to be that comfortable to do something like that, to somebody so close and know so much, it's just diabolical. Rochette's role in revealing Nygaard's alleged abuses could still come with a cost.

Her lawyers worry she could be charged as a co-conspirator. But when we spoke to her, she was undeterred. This is a sigh of relief. I'm not hiding anymore. I'm not running. I'm facing my attack. This is not the first time you did this. This is not the first person that this happened to. But I'm hoping that me coming forward

will make his last victim his last victim. It's not about money. It's not about anything anybody could offer me. It's about what you did to me and what you tried to do to my sister. Rochette's account of her time with Nygaard is a lesson that in stories like these, very little is clear-cut. But what we know for sure is Peter Nygaard has been arrested, awaiting extradition to the U.S. on serious charges related to sex trafficking and racketeering.

We also know that many other survivors, former employees and accomplices corroborate the key allegations. former employees and accomplices corroborate the key allegations. That Nygaard lured young Bahamian women and girls to his property and sexually abused them. And that he paid millions to politicians and police. The number of women coming forward keeps growing and currently sits at more than 80. And these women, they're not just from the Bahamas. Nygaard's predation did not begin at Nygaard Quay.

It began worlds away, more than 40 years ago. Coming up. It didn't strike me as his first time. I mean, I'm a big girl, and I struggle, but he was accomplished. He was good at being a rapist. He said he's richer than God, April. He owns the police. He owns everybody.

He owns people. If this were a poor man, he would have been in jail decades ago. Decades ago. He would have been in jail decades ago. Decades ago. If anything you've heard in this episode has left you looking for someone to talk to, please visit cbc.ca slash uncover. We have a number of resources there for those in need of help and support. Evil by Design is a co-production between CBC Podcasts and The Fifth Estate.

You can find The Fifth Estate's latest documentary, Peter Nygaard, The Secret Videos, on YouTube. This podcast is written by producer Ashley Mack, associate producer Alina Ghosh, and me, Timothy Sawa, with assistance from Lynette Fortune at The Fifth Estate. Mixing and sound design by Evan Kelly, with technical assistance from Laura Antonelli.

For this episode, special thanks goes to Bob McEwen. Emily Canal is our digital producer. Fact-checking by Emily Mathieu, and legal advice from Sean Mormon. Original music by Olivia Pasquarelli. Our senior producer at CBC Podcasts is Chris Oak. And our executive producer is Arif Noorani.