Abercrombie ex-CEO Mike Jeffries arrested on sex trafficking charges
NEW YORK – Abercrombie & Fitch’s disgraced ex-CEO Mike Jeffries has been arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced Tuesday.
The arrest comes after a cascade of public allegations against Jeffries accusing him of sexually abusing and trafficking young men during lavish events he and his partner, Matthew Smith, hosted in the U.S. and abroad.
Jeffries, Smith and a third man, James Jacobson, were charged Tuesday in a 16-count indictment in Long Island Federal Court.
They ran a yearslong sex trafficking and prostitution ring, recruiting dozens of men many of whom aspired to be fashion models, to “sex events” across the globe between 2008 and 2015, the feds allege.
Jacobson, who worked for Jeffries and Smith, acted as their recruiter, traveling across the U.S. and requiring men have sex with him first as a “tryout,” according to prosecutors.
They paid for the men, including at least one as young as 19 years old, to travel to England, France, Italy, Morocco and Saint Barthelemy, hiring an “exclusive set of household staff” to set up for the sex parties and secure the doors, according to the indictment.
The men weren’t allowed to leave until Jeffries and Smith decided the party was over, according to the feds.
Attendees were given alcohol, muscle relaxants referred to as “poppers,” lube, Viagra and condoms, and told to wear costumes and use sex toys, the indictment said. Jacobson or the house staff paid the men attending the events, according to the feds.
The men were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements and give up their clothes, wallets and phones, according to the indictment.
Even so, the men didn’t know the full extent of what would happen – including high-pressure enemas with a hose and having their genitals shaved without advance notice, the feds allege.
“On more than one occasion, the defendants Michael S. Jeffries and Matthew C. Smith either directed others to or personally injected men in their penises with a prescription-grade erection-inducing substance for the purpose of causing the men to engage in sex acts in which they were otherwise physically incapable or unwilling,” the indictment reads.
Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson intentionally recruited heterosexual men, and insisted they engage in sex acts, the feds allege.
In October, one of Jeffries’ accusers, actor David Bradberry, filed a lawsuit against Jeffries, Smith and Abercrombie & Fitch, accusing the former CEO of raping him and the company of providing Jeffries with the “position of power and unfettered access to corporate funds necessary for Jeffries to sexually terrorize aspiring male models.”