Former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has been arrested for interstate sex trafficking and prostitution.
Jeffries’ British partner, Matthew Smith, and another man, Jim Jacobson, were also arrested Thursday in the same case, according to ABC News.
The three men are accused of sexually exploiting and abusing young people at parties they hosted in the United States and around the world.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said in January that they had launched a criminal investigation after several men publicly claimed that Jeffries and his partner, ages 80 and 61, had abused them.
Jeffries and his long-term partner were accused in an explosive BBC documentary of engaging in sex trafficking between 2009 and 2015. They have denied the allegations.
Former Abercrombie & Fitch boss Mike Jeffries faces further allegations of sexual exploitation of men during his time as chief executive of the fashion brand.
Accusers Barrett Pall and David Bradberry claimed they were recruited for “modeling opportunities” through an intermediary, Jacobson, but were sexually exploited.
Dozens of men have said they were approached and forced to attend sex parties organized for Jeffries’ entertainment.
In October, accuser Bradberry filed a lawsuit against the retailer over the couple’s alleged misdeeds.
Bradberry filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that Jeffries had model scouts search the Internet and elsewhere to identify attractive young men seeking to be the next face of Abercrombie.
Often, these potential models became victims of sex trafficking, sent to New York and abroad and abused by Jeffries and other men, all under the pretext that they were being recruited to become Abercrombie’s next model, he maintains. the demand.
David Bradberry, then 23, told the program that an agent introduced him to Jacobson and described him as the guardian of “the owners” of A&F.
Barrett Pall, a former model turned life coach and activist, said he felt pressured to attend an event in the Hamptons in 2011.
“Jeffries was so important to the brand’s profitability that he was given complete autonomy to carry out his role as CEO as he saw fit, including through the blatant use of international sex trafficking and abuse of potential Abercrombie models,” the company alleges. demand.
Jeffries, who left Abercrombie in 2014, turned the chain from a struggling hunting clothing retailer into a seller of must-have clothing for teens. But he faced criticism for the company’s sexualized marketing, which included billboards and beefy models that turned away potential customers who didn’t fit its image.