Frank Stronach found guilty on two charges related to two women in sex assault trial

TORONTO — Billionaire businessman Frank Stronach, who was accused of sexually assaulting several women decades ago, has been found guilty of sexual assault and indecent assault.

Stronach, who is 93, pleaded not guilty to 12 charges stemming from alleged incidents involving seven complainants.

The trial started in February, and by the time arguments wrapped up in April, prosecutors had withdrawn one charge and agreed Stronach should be found not guilty on four more.

The judge overseeing the case, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy, then said she couldn’t convict the businessman based on the evidence of one of the remaining complainants, whose account she found unreliable.

That left Stronach with five charges related to three complainants.

One of the three women was a former employee at Rooney’s, the popular restaurant and nightlife complex Stronach owned, while the other two said they first encountered him at the venue.

In a hearing today, Molloy found him guilty on two charges related to two complainants: sexual assault toward the former employee and indecent assault toward a woman who frequented Rooney’s in the 1970s.

The former employee testified that she agreed to meet Stronach for dinner one evening in the early 1980s after reaching out to him for information on her termination from Rooney’s.

Over dinner at a restaurant, Stronach felt like a “fatherly mentor,” but the woman said she felt uncomfortable when he asked her to come see his nearby condo afterward.

She felt her heart pounding almost immediately after going into the unit, she testified. When she insisted on leaving, Stronach helped her put on her coat, groping her in the process, she said. The woman said he ran his hands up and down her body, touching her breasts and hips.

The woman left, and days or weeks later she received a call offering her a job interview at Magna International, the company Stronach founded in the 1950s, she said. She ended up working at the company for several years but didn’t work directly with Stronach, she said.

The woman Stronach was found to have indecently assaulted testified that she was a regular at Rooney’s and had seen him there frequently. One night in 1977, they had a lobster dinner at the restaurant then Stronach invited her to see his apartment, she said.

Once inside the apartment, Stronach disappeared for a few minutes, then the woman felt a push that put her over the arm of an armchair, she said. Stronach lifted up her skirt and she could feel his erect penis against her underwear like he was trying to penetrate them, she said.

The woman said she eventually freed herself by standing up, then took her coat and purse and left. She didn’t recall anyone speaking.

Molloy found there were too many uncertainties to convict Stronach on charges related to the third remaining complainant.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for September.

Stronach also faces a separate trial on similar charges in Newmarket, Ont., which is now set to take place next May.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2026.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press