Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries arrested and charged with running elite sex trafficking ring around the world
Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, has been arrested on charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Jeffries was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, along with two associates, Matthew Smith from West Palm Beach and James Jacobson from Wisconsin. They were all arrested for charges related to sex trafficking.
Jeffries and Smith appeared in court in West Palm Beach on Tuesday afternoon. Jeffries, the former CEO of a popular clothing brand from 1992 to 2014, was released later that day on a $10 million bond. The judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, ordered that Jeffries be on house arrest with GPS monitoring. He is not allowed to travel without permission and had to give up his passport.
Jeffries, Smith, and Jacobson have all been charged with one count of sex trafficking. They also face 15 counts of interstate prostitution, each tied to 15 different alleged victims.
A federal indictment claims that Jeffries, along with his partner Smith and recruiter Jacobson, ran an "international sex trafficking and prostitution business" from 2008 to 2015.
The indictment claims they organized "sex events" in places like England, France, Italy, Morocco, St. Barts, New York City, and the Hamptons for Jeffries, Smith, and others. It also says they “employed coercive, fraudulent and deceptive tactics in connection with the recruitment, hiring, transportation, obtaining, maintaining, solicitation and payment of the men to engage in commercial sex,”
The indictment says the men who attended these events were told they might get modeling jobs or career help, and were also warned “that not complying with requests for certain acts during the Sex Events could harm their careers,". Prosecutors mentioned in a memo that the youngest alleged victim was 19 years old.
“Many of the victims, at least one of whom was as young as 19 years old, were financially vulnerable and aspired to become models in the fashion industry, a notoriously cutthroat world,” the memo says. “Indeed, some of the men they recruited had previously worked at Abercrombie stores or modeled for Abercrombie.”
Prosecutors said the men had to sign nondisclosure agreements and give up their wallets and phones during the events. Jeffries, Smith, and Jacobson are also accused of hiring specific household staff members to help run and oversee the events.
The three of them hired a "full-service security company" to manage nondisclosure agreements, do background checks, and keep an eye on the victims. If needed, the company would also intimidate the victims, according to prosecutors in their detention memo.
"On occasions when witnesses threatened to expose or sue them, Jeffries and Smith relied on the services of a security company to surveil and intimidate those individuals, thereby securing their silence," it said.
Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at a news conference that Jeffries and Smith spent millions on their sex trafficking operation. This money went towards paying staff, covering travel costs, and keeping everything secret.
Peace explained that the operation had a referral system and an interview process. The men who were targeted didn’t know the details about the sex events before they attended. During these “tryouts,” Jacobson usually had the candidates first engage in commercial sex acts with him, according to the indictment.
A year ago, the BBC released a shocking report that said Jeffries was accused of taking advantage of men at sex parties he hosted. The report mentioned that 12 men claimed to have attended or helped organize events where sex acts happened for Jeffries and his partner, Smith, from 2009 to 2015. Some of the men who talked to the BBC said they were exploited or didn't join willingly.
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