Modelling agent with shattered reputation says he was falsely tied to Nygard

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There were the apex sexual predators like uber-producer Harvey Weinstein and disgraced comic Bill Cosby.

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Toss in a slew of other powerful men whose demise came at the hands of the #MeToo movement.

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And then there were those who were named, shamed and sued for purely opportunistic reasons, a quick, no questions asked payday.

New York modelling agent Jonathan Baram, 49, says he was one of these folks, like a dolphin ensnared in a gigantic commercial fishery net.

Baram says he was sued by a woman he never met — all because he had met disgraced Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard at a party in Nygard’s Caribbean redoubt.

He is now suing the woman and the lawyers behind her for $50 million.

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“I met him at a birthday party for not even 10 minutes in 2007,” Baram told The Toronto Sun, adding he was in the islands on a shoot for Maxim. “I didn’t even know who he was. A friend introduced us.”

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Baram said he never gave the encounter another thought — until 2020 when he learned he was being sued by a Jane Doe via a law firm he had never heard of.

The Canadian woman’s lawsuit claimed that in 2007 when she was just 17 — a straight-A student no less — she moved to New York City for a career as an actress and a model.

At Baram’s behest, Jane Doe claimed he promised to make her a star, the Doe lawsuit claimed.

She alleged that at a meeting Baram referred to Nygard as a “very important friend.”

Jane Doe’s suit against Baram also claimed he had to send the threadbare fashion mogul nude photos of the teenager. All for a bikini shoot in the Bahamas.

Her suit then claimed Baram took her to Nygard’s New York apartment where she would be sexually assaulted, adding that Baram later groped her.

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The problem, according to Baram, is that none of this story was true. At the time, Jane Doe’s legal eagles dutifully turned to CBC News for an airing of the lawsuit. Baram was stunned.

“I deny all of these evil and unproven accusations against me in this civil lawsuit,” Baram told CBC in an email in 2020. “My adversaries are an upstart law firm just trying to get publicity going after Peter Nygard. If this was serious, I would have been arrested for these horrible accusations.”

Baram says not a word of it is true and claims it is an opportunistic cash grab, adding he was introduced to Nygard through a mutual friend.

“How I got looped in, I’ll never know. I didn’t know who he was until we were introduced. In that lawsuit, I was portrayed like I was a pimp,” he said, adding that he never met the fashionista on U.S. soil so even suing in New York was odd.

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“It was in 2020, the height of #MeToo … I have never even met this woman, this Jane Doe … I have no idea who she is. She has never been identified to me so I can’t even answer very many questions.

“I had no experience with this type of litigation … and that’s why we’re suing them.”

Baram was talking about Jane Doe and the law firm behind her. The firm has offices in a slew of oddball places.

The result was Baram’s career shattered, his livelihood imperilled and his reputation obliterated.

“I’ve received death threats and now I’m having a hard time making a living… sex trafficking is a brutal accusation and I’m now perceived as evil. I can’t believe it went this far.”

There have been no criminal charges, but there is a lower threshold of proof in civil litigation

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According to Baram and his lawyers, the evidence was there from the beginning: The Canadian Jane Doe making the complaint could not offer dates or any other pertinent details. Baram says he was no longer in New York, he was in Florida and had never had dealings with any Canadian model.

His lawyers wrote on June 30: “Jane Doe did not allege how she met Mr. Baram and she did not allege or provide messages she exchanged with Baram that caused her to leave Canada for New York City. When it was time for Jane Doe to support her claims, she dismissed her suit against Mr. Baram.”

Plus, for what it’s worth, his agency focused on Black and Latina models.

Baram says when it came time for discovery and to supply evidence, Jane Doe voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit.

On June 30, Baram’s lawyers wrote the judge looking to disqualify Jane Doe’s lawyers from representing her in the lawsuit Baram has filed. He is suing them as well and in New York, lawyers cannot represent clients if they’re being sued in the same matter.

In the interim, Baram’s life has been left in tatters.

“It’s pretty scary, what I’ve been through … it is terrifying.”

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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