Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries has been arrested with two other unnamed men. They were arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, according to a spokesperson for federal prosecutors. Jeffries left the company in 2014 after working for the clothing retailer for 22 years.
Specific details about the criminal charges are not being shared at this time. Jeffries’ lawyer, Brian Bieber says he will “respond in detail to the allegations after the indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse — not the media.”
These charges came after years of sexual misconduct allegations, made via civil lawsuits and the media. Most of these allegations attest that Jeffries lured his victims in with the promise of modeling work only to pressure them into sex acts.
One of these civil suits was filed in New York as recently as last year. It accuses Abercrombie & Fitch of allowing Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his time with the company. Claiming that Jeffries had modeling scouts searching the internet for prospective models with the intent of turning them into victims of sex trafficking.
That same year, Abercrombie & Fitch allegedly hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation after the BBC aired a report with similar allegations. The BBC spoke to a dozen men who described events involving sex acts. These men say that these events were staged by Jeffries and his partner, Matthew Smith.
The venues were normally his home in New York and hotels in London, Paris, and elsewhere. These events often ended with many of these models having NDAs pushed on them, with some being actively discouraged from reading the documents.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace will hold a news conference on October 22nd with FBI and police officials about this situation.
