AKIPRESS.COM - US authorities say they have indicted Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard on nine charges including racketeering and sex trafficking, BBC reported.

Nygard has been taken into custody by Canadian police and US authorities are seeking his extradition.

The charges were announced in New York on Tuesday by acting US Attorney Audrey Strauss, the FBI and New York City police.

The 79-year-old has denied allegations of wrongdoing.

The indictment, unsealed on Tuesday, said the alleged crimes arose "out of a decades-long pattern of criminal conduct involving at least dozens of victims in the United States, the Bahamas, and Canada, among other locations", according to a release by the US attorney's office of the southern district of New York.

Nygard's lawyer said on Tuesday that his client "vehemently denies these allegations and he expects to be vindicated in court".

Lawyer Jay Prober added he would be seeking to make a bail application for his client at the earliest opportunity.