Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach found guilty of sexual assault
by Lisa Hornung · UPIJune 19 (UPI) -- Canadian auto parts mogul Frank Stronach, 93, was found guilty Friday of sexual assault and indecent assault.
Stronach, one of Canada's richest men, was found not guilty of three other charges of sexual assault involving two other women. In those three cases, Justice Anne Molloy said she couldn't determine if the incidents were consensual.
Born in Austria and the founder of Magna International, Stronach pleaded not guilty to 12 charges from seven women. The allegations were from incidents that allegedly happened from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Most of the women were people he met through Magna or other companies that he controlled. But the woman in the indecent assault charge was an acquaintance of Stronach's who said she went to his apartment after a dinner in 1977 when she was 25. She said Stronach lifted her skirt and did what Molloy called, "quite simply, gross and disgusting conduct."
A different woman alleged that the billionaire groped her repeatedly in the 1980s as she tried to leave his condo. He had called her there for dinner to find out why she had been fired from a restaurant he owned, Rooney's. He was convicted for sexual assault for that interaction.
When the trial began in February, prosecutors withdrew five other charges.
Stronach's lawyer Leora Shemesh told the CBC after the ruling that she was happy that Stronach was found not guilty on most of the charges and that the ones he was convicted for were what she called the least serious offenses.
Magna International made auto parts for manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz. He has also branched into golf courses, horse racing and magazine publishing.
Magna bought out Stronach in 2011 for (U.S.) $863 million and is no longer involved with the company.
Stronach also founded a political party in Austria in 2012 called "Team Stronach." The party eventually lost steam.