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Peter Nygard, the Canadian fashion designer, has been sentenced in his absence to 90 days in prison and fined US$150,000 by a judge in the Bahamas.

In a ruling Friday, the Supreme Court of the Bahamas found the designer in contempt of court over a case involving emails allegedly stolen from an environmental group based on the island. The group, Save the Bays, said in a circulated release that it has been at loggerheads with Nygard since 2013, over what it said was illegal dredging work near the fashion designer’s New Providence, Bahamas home. Nygard has been accused of enlarging the cay around his luxury property without official permission, and the work has been at the centre of a bitter, long-running legal battle.

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Bahamian outlet The Tribune reports that the emails in question were first revealed to be in Nygard’s possession in an affidavit produced by Keod Smith, a lawyer for the Canadian, at an earlier hearing. On the back of this, Save the Bays had been granted an injunction in February stopping Nygard from publishing, disseminating or even looking over the emails in question. A copy of the ruling provided by Save the Bays lists the defendants as Nygard, Smith and “persons unknown,” who have “misappropriated or published the applicants confidential emails.” The ruling indicates that Nygard broke the February injunction.

Nygard is not believed to be in the Bahamas. Justice Ruth M.L. Bowe-Darville ruled he must pay the principal $150,000 fine within a week, or he will be given another month in prison, and an extra $5,000 fine, for each day that the sum remains outstanding.

Offering her decision, Bowe-Darville also ordered the Canadian to apologize for his non-appearance in writing and promise that he would stop using the emails in question. Each time he breaks one of these orders, she said, he will pay another $5,000 on top of the other fines.