Billionaire Frank Stronach charged with 8 more criminal counts including sexual assault, police say

Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach has been charged with additional criminal offences, including sexual assault, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.

“Investigators from the Peel Regional Police, Special Victims Unit, have identified additional victims and additional charges have been laid,” Peel Const. Tyler Bell-Morena told CBC News in an emailed statement.

Bell-Morena said the newly announced charges include six counts of sexual assault, as well as two other criminal counts.

Police did not specify what years the further allegations stem from. A Peel police spokesperson declined to say how many additional alleged victims may be involved, and where Stronach, 91, was arrested on Wednesday.

One alleged victim reached out to police within hours of the first charges being announced, a source familiar with the case told CBC News. 

The source said the alleged victim called investigators the morning of June 8, after Peel Regional Police issued a news release the previous evening, announcing sexual assault charges against Stronach. Peel’s special victims unit asked anyone with information about the case to come forward. 

CBC is not naming the source as they were not authorized to speak publicly. They did not disclose the nature of the allegations, and it’s not clear whether the person’s account formed the basis for any of the new charges announced today.

Stronach’s lawyer, Brian Greenspan, said his client “denies and will vigorously defend these further untested allegations dating back to 1977.”

“He has spent his lifetime committed to the betterment of the Canadian community and industry,” Greenspan said.

“He plans to continue to devote his energy and resources to his work advocating for the adoption of a Canadian Economic Charter of Rights to benefit workers, small businesses, family farmers and the Canadian economy.”

5 other charges recently laid

Earlier this month, Stronach was charged with five offences, including rape and forcible confinement, against three women between 1980 and 2023. The charges have not been proven in court.

On those prior charges, Greenspan has previously said Stronach “categorically denies the allegations of impropriety which have been brought against him. He looks forward to the opportunity to fully respond to the charges and to maintain his legacy, both as a philanthropist and as an icon of the Canadian business community.”