Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries Arrested on Sex Trafficking and Interstate Prostitution Charges
Abercrombie & Fitch’s former CEO Mike Jeffries is in custody after he was arrested in Florida on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
A 16-count indictment was unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Islip, New York, charging Jeffries, who ran the popular retailer from 1992 through 2014, and his partner, Matthew Smith, who was also arrested in West Palm Beach, along with their associate James Jacobson with trafficking and prostitution. Jacobson was arrested in his home state of Wisconsin and all three are being held in connection with the charges. The three men are expected to appear before a judge Tuesday and to be arraigned at a later date.
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“Powerful individuals, for too long, have trafficked and abused for their own sexual pleasure,” the FBI’s James E. Dennehy, assistant director in charge of the New York Field, said at a joint press conference announcing the arrests and indictments on Tuesday. “Young people with few resources and a dream — a dream of securing a successful career in fashion or entertainment — to anyone who thinks they can exploit and coerce others by using the so-called casting couch system. This case should serve as a warning, prepare to trade that couch for a bed in federal prison.”
Dennehy said at the press conference that investigators don’t have evidence that any of the alleged crimes took place on company grounds.
To fulfill their sexual desires, Jeffries, 80, and Smith relied on their financial resources and Jeffries’ power to operate this venture on Jacobson and a network of their employees, contractors and security professionals, a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York reads.
According to the indictment, the wealthy couple paid for dozens of men to travel within the U.S. to the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, and hotels internationally to various global locales in England, France, Italy, Morocco and Saint Barthélémy. Jacobson allegedly traveled across the U.S. and globally to recruit men for the couple’s alleged sex events. Jacobson typically engaged in commercial sex acts with the young men as an audition, the incitement states.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the enterprise employed a referral system and interview process regarding the details of the alleged sex events before they attended; the young men were not told of the full extent and nature of the sexual activity that would be required. The trio is also accused of making the young men believe that attending the event could yield modeling opportunities and that not complying with requests for certain acts during the event could harm their careers. Personal items, including clothing, wallets and cellular phones, were confiscated during the events, the office said in its press release on Tuesday. Non-disclosure agreements were mandatory when attending the events.
In October of 2023, the BBC published an investigation alleging that the CEO and his partner were at the center of a trafficking ring, in which 12 young men said they were recruited to attend sex parties the two would host and that sex acts were performed for the couple. Some of the young men told the BBC that they suffered abuse at the events.
Jeffries rode the success of Abercrombie & Fitch for over two decades after he transformed the retail brand from an Ohio-based heritage outfitter to the mega-brand geared at teenagers and young adults. The brand particularly zeroed in on young men and placed male beauty and over-sexualization at the forefront of its presentation, featured both in the store’s ads as well as with its staff. Sales dwindled and Jeffries exited in 2014 with a $25 million pension.
As he was exiting, a pension fund invested in the brand brought legal proceedings claiming the company had paid out settlements to staff, according to a BBC Panorama investigation. It was unclear if the complaints and payoffs were for anything sexual.
Brian Bieber, Attorney for Michael Jeffries told The Hollywood Reporter via email that “we 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.”
Oct. 22, 10:45 a.m. This story has been updated with the events of Tuesday’s press conference.
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