Canadian auto parts billionaire charged with sexual assault

Frank Stronach, the 91-year-old billionaire founder of one of the world’s largest auto parts companies, was arrested and charged Friday in connection with the sexual assault investigation.

In a brief press release, police in the Region of Peel outside Toronto said the time period of crimes allegedly committed by Mr. Stronach ranges from the 1980s to last year.

Mr. Stronach, the Austrian-born founder of Magna International, was charged with, among other things, sexual assault, sexual harassment and false imprisonment. He was released after the arraignment and will later appear in court in Brampton, Ontario.

Brian Greenspan, Mr Stronach’s lawyer, said his client “categorically denies the allegations of inappropriate conduct made against him.”

He added: “He looks forward to the opportunity to fully respond to the allegations and to preserving his legacy as both a philanthropist and an icon of Canadian business.”

Stronach built a global company from a one-man workshop he founded in 1957. Under his leadership, Magna, which also assembles vehicles for several automakers, including Mercedes-Benz, attempted to take over both Chrysler and Opel, the European arm of General Motors.

Magna investors often resented the way Stronach used his control of the company through a special class of stock to involve it in various, sometimes unprofitable, ventures that had nothing to do with making auto parts. These included a failed restaurant chain, a glossy business magazine, golf courses and horse racing. In 2010, Magna paid Stronach about $1 billion to give up control.

The Stronach Group, which he founded and is now run by his daughter Belinda Stronach, owns or manages horse racing tracks throughout the United States.

In 2013, “Team Stronach,” a pro-business protest party he founded, won two seats in the Austrian state parliament.

In a statement, Magna spokeswoman Tracy Fuerst said the company had “no knowledge of the investigation or the allegations made beyond what has been reported in the media.”

The Stronach Group did not respond to a request for comment.

It is unclear why the charges were brought in Peel, which is part of the Toronto metropolitan area. Mr. Stronach lives in York, which is also in the Toronto area and where Magna is headquartered. Constable Tyler Bell, a police spokesman, declined to comment on the investigation.

During his tenure at Magna, where he was at one point Canada’s highest-paid executive, Stronach often made iconoclastic economic and political theories or comments that some considered inappropriate. He began the company’s annual meeting in 2007 not with a discussion of his takeover bid for Chrysler, but by asking shareholders who was more attractive to women, himself or his longtime associate Manfred Gingl.

Stronach is the second Canadian billionaire to be charged with sex crimes in just over a week. Montreal police charged Robert G. Miller, founder of Future Electronics, with 21 charges, including several counts of sexual exploitation of minors. Police said he paid several young girls to perform sex acts.