Canadian billionaire businessman Frank Stronach was convicted Friday of one count of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault, with the judge characterizing some of his conduct as “gross and disgusting.”
Stronach was arrested and charged by police in 2024 with multiple criminal offenses, including sexual assault and rape, tied to allegations spanning from the 1970s through 2024.
Stronach, 93, was born in Austria and went on to establish Canadian auto parts giant Magna International in 1957, later becoming one of Canada’s wealthiest business figures.
Magna has said Stronach has not been connected to the company since he gave up control in 2010.
Following a trial that opened in February, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy found Stronach guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in the early 1980s.
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The woman told the court the assault happened after she went to Stronach’s Toronto condominium following dinner at a nearby location.
Molloy also convicted Stronach of indecent assault in connection with an incident in the late 1970s, after a woman testified that he groped her at his condominium.
Stronach did not take the stand in his own defense during the trial. Molloy acquitted him on the remaining charges, including attempted rape and rape.
Leora Shemesh, one of Stronach’s lawyers, said in an email that they are “extremely happy” that other serious charges, rape and more counts of sexual assault, he had been facing were dismissed.
“We are disappointed by the convictions on the two very minor offenses,” she said.
Stronach will be sentenced later. He faces another sexual assault trial next year.
