By Amanda Coletta
TORONTO -- Frank Stronach, the founder of auto-parts giant Magna International, was found guilty Friday of sexual assault and indecent assault in cases involving two women that stretched back decades.
The 93-year-old Austrian-Canadian billionaire was acquitted of three other charges involving a third woman. When the trial began in February, he was facing 12 charges involving allegations from seven women. Over the course of the trial, prosecutors withdrew or agreed that he shouldn't be found guilty of five charges, and Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy said she couldn't convict on two others, citing the unreliability of the complainant's evidence.
Stronach left a Toronto court without commenting on the verdict. One of his lawyers, Leora Shemesh, told reporters that he had been convicted of the "least serious" of the offenses and that she would take time to "digest" Molloy's decision and "understand it a little bit better."
Stronach's rags-to-riches rise from a small village in Austria to the upper echelons of Canada's business elite was called the personification of "the great Canadian success story" when he was awarded the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor, in 1999. He ceded control of Magna in 2010.
Over the past several years, more than a dozen women have accused Stronach of sex crimes, dating back decades. Many of the complainants alleged a similar pattern of behavior, accusing Stronach of meeting them at Rooney's -- a Toronto restaurant and nightlife hot spot that he owned -- and inviting them back to his condo where they said the assaults would occur.
Stronach arrived in Canada with several hundred dollars in his pocket and took odd jobs as a machinist and a collector of golf balls at a driving range before he started the tool and die shop that would eventually become Magna International in a rented Toronto garage in 1957.
The auto-parts powerhouse, which now employs more than 154,000 people in several dozen countries, provides parts to Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and General Motors, among others. With Stronach at the helm, Magna launched failed bids for Chrysler and Opel.
After he left Magna, Stronach founded a political party in Austria and the Stronach Group, a horse-racing company now controlled by his daughter, Belinda, a former federal cabinet minister in Canada. The pair had been involved in a dispute over the family fortune that was settled out of court in 2020.
The convictions in the case stem from incidents that took place in the 1970s and 1980s.
Stronach was found guilty of indecent assault in an incident involving a woman who testified that she visited Stronach's apartment in 1977, when she was 25, after they met at Rooney's. At the apartment, she testified, Stronach pushed her from behind over the arm of a chair, lifted her skirt and pushed himself against her.
The sexual-assault conviction stemmed from the allegations of a separate woman who worked as a waitress at Rooney's. She testified that in the early 1980s, she had dinner with Stronach to discuss her firing from the restaurant. Later, at his apartment, he groped her.
Stronach didn't testify during the trial. A sentencing hearing is set for September.
He faces another sexual-assault trial next year, involving six women who allege crimes that took place between 1988 and February 2024. Stronach has denied the allegations. Another woman, who isn't a complainant in the criminal cases, filed a civil lawsuit against Stronach, alleging that he sexually assaulted her in 1986 at a Magna guesthouse when she was a 19-year-old intern at the company. He has denied the claim.
Write to Amanda Coletta at amanda.coletta@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 19, 2026 16:59 ET (20:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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