The former CEO of the clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch was arrested and accused of sex trafficking and prostitution in a scheme that involved male models from around the world, the US Attorney’s Office reported on Tuesday 22.
In addition to the former executive Mike Jeffries80 years old, his partner and companion Matthew Smith, 61, and James Jacobson, 71, an alleged intermediary between the two, were arrested, announced Breon Peace, prosecutor at the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Brooklyn, in New York.
The three are accused of “sex trafficking and prostitution,” the prosecutor said.
The defendants invited young aspiring models to places such as Spain, the United Kingdom, Morocco, France and New York and “tricked them into attending public events to have sex,” Peace said.
According to the indictment, between December 2008 and March 2015 Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson used a combination of “force, fraud and coercion” to traffic men while operating a prostitution business.
They gave them alcohol, drugs and substances to maintain erections, he added.
Also according to the indictment, “on more than one occasion when the men did not or could not give their consent, Jeffries and Smith violated the physical integrity of these men, subjecting them” to “invasive and violent sexual contact,” declared the promoter.
“They spent millions of dollars on vast infrastructure to support this operation and maintain its secrecy,” he added.
Jeffries and Smith will appear in court in West Palm Beach, Florida (south), and Jacobson, detained in Wisconsin, will appear in court in St. Paul, Minnesota (north).
In charging documents 15 anonymous victims were named, but prosecutors suggest the scale of the alleged crimes was probably much larger and have appealed for new witnesses or potential victims to come forward.
“Today’s arrests are monumental for the aspiring male models who were victims of these individuals,” said Brittany Henderson, an attorney at Edwards Henderson, which represents victims of the alleged crimes.
“Your fight for justice does not end here. We hope to hold Abercrombie and Fitch accountable for facilitating this appalling conduct and ensure it does not happen again,” he added in a statement sent to AFP.
The case has its origins in an investigative report by BBC from 2023, The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Coolin which several men spoke about signing confidentiality agreements for sexual events allegedly run by Jeffries.
Abercrombie and Fitch said it was “horrified and disgusted” by the reports about Jeffries’ behavior and that it has “zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind.”
Jeffries was a managing director at Abercrombie from 1992 to 2014. He left the company that year, after receiving 25 million dollars in compensation (around 66 million reais at the time), according to corporate documents.
