Mike Jeffries, Former Abercrombie CEO, Arrested in Sex Trafficking Case

Michael Jeffries, who served as CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014, was arrested on Tuesday, and faces federal charges related to sex trafficking.

Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith were arrested in Florida and are expected to appear in court today, Oct. 22, The New York Times reports. Another person, James Jacobson, was arrested in connection with the case while in Wisconsin. All three men are scheduled to be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.

The arrest comes a year after a class-action lawsuit accused Jeffries of using a middleman (Jacobson) to lure men to events on the prospect of Abercrombie modeling jobs. At said events, some men allege they were sexually exploited or abused by Jeffries and Smith, according to a BBC investigation.

Per the BBC, Jeffries would host the young models at events at his New York homes and at hotels in London, Paris, Venice, and Marrakesh between 2009 and 2015. Jeffries and Smith would allegedly have sex with the men or “direct” them to have sex with each other. They were allegedly offered envelopes of cash with thousands of dollars and were often asked to sign NDAs. CNN reported that the models were allegedly given drugs, alcohol, and Viagra to perform the sex acts at said events.

“This experience, I think it broke me,” Barrett Pall, a former model who accused Jeffries of groping him, told the BBC. “I think that this stole any ounce of innocence that I had left. It mentally messed me up. But with the language I now have today, I can sit here and tell you that I was taken advantage of.”

Brian Bieber, a lawyer for Jeffries, did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment on Tuesday’s arrest, but told the Times he would “respond in detail to the allegations” in court. Brittany Henderson, who represents the plaintiffs in the class action suit against Jeffries and Abercrombie, said the arrests were “monumental” for his alleged victims.

“Their fight for justice does not end here,” Henderson told The Times. “Our clients look forward to holding Abercrombie and Fitch liable for facilitating this terrible conduct and ensuring that this cannot happen again.”
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Following the BBC investigation last year, Abercrombie said it was “appalled and disgusted” by Jeffries’ behavior and hired a private law firm to investigate the claims. Jacobson, who allegedly acted as a middleman, told BBC in a statement last year that he took offense with the suggestion of “any coercive, deceptive or forceful behavior on my part.”

“Any encounter I had was fully consensual, not coercive,” he told the outlet. “Everyone I came into contact with who attended these events went in with their eyes wide open.”