Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries, 80, helped the company skyrocket to fame with hypersexualized marketing and shirtless male models to create buzz for their stores. He has now been arrested on allegations of prostitution and sex trafficking.
Prosecutors have accused Jeffries of using his authority over the company to force many aspiring models into having sex with him and his romantic partner, along with other people attending their "sex parties."
Jeffries was arrested on Oct. 22 and charged with operating an international sex trafficking ring while he was Abercrombie’s chief executive. The federal indictment against him listed 15 unnamed trafficking victims.
According to the indictment, Jeffries allegedly coerced models into attending "sex parties" in different locations around the world from 2008 to 2015. The former CEO reportedly paid the male models who attended and he also gave them "muscle relaxants, Viagra, lubricants and sex toys."
Prosecutors from the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn claimed that Jeffries misled some of his victims into thinking that they were only attending modeling shoots instead of sex parties.
Prosecutors added that Jeffries even included Abercrombie products in the sex parties. According to the indictment, some of his victims felt pressured to participate to avoid jeopardizing their modeling careers at the time.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace warned that people who think they can abuse others using the "casting-couch system" should take the case against Jeffries as a stark warning. Peace added that anyone who abuses their authority in the same way should be prepared to go to federal prison.
Meanwhile, Matthew Smith, Jeffries’ longtime romantic partner, and James Jacobson, an employee of the couple, were also arrested and charged with 16 criminal counts. The charges include interstate prostitution and sex trafficking.
Jacobson was allegedly responsible for recruiting, interviewing and hiring men for the parties, said the prosecutors. The indictment said that Jacobson would hold "tryouts" with recruits, but he would then require the models to first have sex with him.
The shocking arrests follow a BBC investigation in 2023 and a civil lawsuit where several male models claimed that Jeffries used promises of a job at Abercrombie to lure young men to locations across the globe and force them to have sex with him and others. (Related: P. Diddy sex trafficking ring allegedly involves the hotel, banking, pharmaceutical industries.)
According to federal prosecutors, Jeffries reportedly used a network of employees, contractors and security personnel to operate the sex trafficking ring and keep the prostitution business under wraps. The sex parties took place in Jeffries' New York residences, as well as at different luxury hotels in England, France, Italy and Morocco.
Prosecutors said that Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson all used burner phones to communicate. The three defendants also allegedly required the models to sign nondisclosure agreements and employed a security company to monitor and intimidate the witnesses who threatened to expose their crimes, added the prosecutors.
A defense attorney entered a plea of not guilty on Oct. 25 on behalf of Jeffries.
Jeffries' wife and son were present in the courtroom and signed the $10 million bond secured by the defendant's home in New York. The former CEO must remain in home confinement, undergo constant electronic monitoring and maintain no contact with his co-defendants, witnesses or victims.
The next court appearance for the defendants is Dec. 12. However, there is still no date for Smith's arraignment.
2023 Civil lawsuit revealed Jeffries used a "network of co-conspirators" to victimize A&F models
In a civil lawsuit brought in 2023 by David Bradberry, he claimed that Jeffries abused victims with the assistance of a group of co-conspirators within Abercrombie and Smith, who attended company events and meetings.
The suit alleged that there could have been at least dozens, possibly more than one hundred, young model victims.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing Jeffries’ accusers, explained that, as they said in the lawsuit, the charges of sex trafficking is "of the most heinous kind." He added that the arrests of the defendants "are a huge step toward justice for the many victims."
Jeffries and Smith were both arrested in Florida and Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin.
While Jeffries was released on a $10 million bond, Smith was ordered detained. Meanwhile, Jacobson was also released on a $500,000 bond.
Jeffries began working at Abercrombie in 1992 when the company was part of Leslie Wexner's retail empire. Wexner hired Jeffries, then a retail veteran, to transform the money-losing brand that he had purchased in 1988.
Under Jeffries' management, Abercrombie created a "Look Book" of rules for stores and hired college students to staff them. The company then released sexually themed ads and hired shirtless male greeters in their stores to create a cult following with loyal teen-aged consumers, who bought the store's logo-emblazoned clothing.
The business was successful for several years, even hitting annual sales of $4.5 billion in fiscal 2013, up from less than $1 billion before 2000. Jeffries then stepped down as CEO in December 2014 after a string of poor results.
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Watch the video below to learn more about the sex trafficking charges against former Abercrombie CEO Jeffries.
This video is from the Children Are NOT Sex Toys! channel on Brighteon.com.
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