Canada: Billionaire businessman Frank Stronach's sexual assault case to be back in court in Oct

As the case came before the court for the first time, a brief appearance by video was made this morning by one of Stronach's lawyers.

After first being charged last month with five sex-related offences involving three complainants, Stronach, who is 91, faces charges include allaged rape, attempted rape, indecent assault, forcible confinement and sexual assault dating as far back as 1977 and as recently as this year.

Stronach's lawyer Brian Greenspan said that his client denies all allegations against him and plans to defend his reputation.

Greenspan added in a statement issued last Friday, that Stronach remains presumptively innocent and will respond to the allegations in court.

After starting company Magna in his garage in 1957 Stronach became one of Canada's wealthiest people as the founder of auto parts giant Magna.

Besides the Stronach Group, a company that specializes in horse racing, he also founded Stronach International in 2018, a company focusing on organic foods and "micro-electric mobility."

Following his resignation as Magna's chairman in 2011, Stronach founded his own political party  a year later in his home country of Austria.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)