Former Abercrombie CEO out on $10m bond amid sex-trafficking investigation | Retail industry

The previous Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was arrested on Tuesday as a part of a legal intercourse trafficking investigation by federal prosecutors, the FBI in Brooklyn and the New York police division have introduced.

Authorities allege that Jeffries, his British associate Matthew Smith and a 3rd man, Jim Jacobson, ran an “worldwide intercourse trafficking group” that coerced “dozens and dozens” of males into sexual acts, usually for the promise of a modeling profession with the clothes retailer.

“Highly effective people for too lengthy have trafficked and abused, for their very own sexual pleasure, younger folks with few sources and a dream – the dream of securing a profitable profession in style or leisure,” the US lawyer in Brooklyn, Breon Peace, mentioned at a information convention discussing the indictments of Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson.

“To anybody who thinks they’ll exploit others through the use of the so-called casting sofa system – this case ought to function a warning,” Peace mentioned. “Put together to commerce that sofa for a mattress in federal jail.”

Prosecutors mentioned 15 victims got here ahead to accuse the lads of operating a world intercourse trafficking group from late 2008 to 2015. Prosecutors mentioned victims have been flown all over the world to worldwide lodges in London, Italy and St Bart’s, amongst others – and to Jeffries’ houses in New York Metropolis and the unique Hamptons on Lengthy Island.

Jacobson acted because the recruiter, in accordance with investigators, usually forcing males into sexual “tryouts” earlier than bringing them to Smith and Jeffries.

The pair would then decide males for intercourse events, at occasions coercing them to drink alcohol, take the erectile dysfunction medicine Viagra, or muscle relaxant medication identified colloquially as “poppers”. At occasions, Jeffries and Smith would additionally forcibly inject the lads with an “erection inducing substance”.

Prosecutors mentioned the previous CEO and his associate spent hundreds of thousands on the enterprise – paying Jacobson’s wage, hiring employees for intercourse events, renting lodges, and shopping for tickets for home and worldwide journey.

“Throughout that interval the defendants employed dozens of males and transported them to New York and across the globe,” Peace mentioned. Peace added that Jeffries and Smith “spent hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on an enormous infrastructure to help this exercise and keep it’s secrecy” – and spent “a whole lot of hundreds” in money for business intercourse acts.

The indictment comes after eight males instructed a 2023 BBC investigation that that they had been exploited and recruited for intercourse occasions by the previous style boss. Federal prosecutors started an investigation in January 2024, following a civil swimsuit filed by victims final 12 months.

One of many plaintiffs within the civil lawsuit, David Bradberry, mentioned Jeffries compelled fashions to take medication and have interaction in intercourse for an opportunity to seem in Abercrombie catalogs whereas the corporate paid off individuals who accused Jeffries of sexual abuse or harassment.

Jeffries led Abercrombie from 1992 to 2014, making it a profitable teen attire maker identified for cologne-filled shops and adverts that includes semi-nude fashions. He resigned amid criticism that he didn’t sustain with altering tastes of stripling customers.

An lawyer for Bradberry, Brad Edwards of the Edwards Henderson regulation agency, instructed ABC Information in an announcement: “As we specified by our lawsuit, this was an Abercrombie-run, intercourse trafficking group that permeated all through the corporate and allowed the three people arrested right this moment to victimize dozens and dozens of younger, aspiring male fashions.”

The brand new federal legal case in opposition to Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson follows lots of the identical accusations first lodged in civil court docket, together with that Jeffries exploited younger males for intercourse between 2009 to 2015 in cities all over the world. Some males alleged they have been abused or injected with medication. Jeffries and his associate denied all allegations in a court docket submitting in response to the lawsuit.

Earlier than Jeffries stepped down, his tenure had additionally drawn scrutiny over its exclusionary advertising and marketing, specializing in skinny, engaging clients.

“We are going to reply intimately to the allegations after the indictment is unsealed, and when acceptable, however plan to take action within the courthouse – not the media,” Brian Bieber, a lawyer for Jeffries, instructed the Wall Road Journal.

Legal professionals for Smith didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. A lawyer for Jacobson couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

Jeffries was launched on a $10m bond, Jacobson on a $500,000 bond, and Smith was detained. They are going to be arraigned on Friday.

Peace mentioned: “I encourage anybody with details about this case, together with anybody who was a sufferer of the defendants’ alleged crimes, to contact the FBI.”

The case in opposition to Jeffries and his co-defendants is amongst a number of high-profile intercourse trafficking instances which have been pursued by federal prosecutors in New York Metropolis lately. Others have resulted in fees in opposition to music mogul Sean Combs in addition to Jeffrey Epstein, the late disgraced financier and convicted intercourse offender.