Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was arrested on Tuesday — along with his partner Matt Smith and a third man, Jim Jacobson — and hit with a 16-count indictment in the latest development of an extensive criminal sex trafficking investigation led by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
According to ABC News, the three men are accused of operating an international sex trafficking and prostitution business that recruited young men for parties in the U.S. and abroad, using their combined vast wealth for an illegal endeavor "that was dedicated to fulfilling their sexual desires and ensuring that their international sex trafficking and prostitution business was kept secret," per the indictment.
"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," Brian Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, and Joe Nascimento, an attorney for Smith, told ABC News in identical statements.
Jeffries, who ran A&F from 1992 to 2014, was the subject of the 2022 Netflix documentary, "White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch," which detailed accusations made towards the CEO over the years which included encouraging a culture of racial discrimination and ranking employees based on their looks.
"All that mattered was that the employees that you took pictures of and sent back to headquarters were hot," journalist Moe Tkacik, who describes the whole process as feeling "illegal," says in the documentary.
In a 2006 interview with Salon, Jeffries commented on the emphasis on "the brouhaha surrounding the A&F Quarterly, which, until it was discontinued in 2003, boasted articles about the history of orgies and pictures of chiseled, mostly white, all-American boys and girls (but mostly boys) cavorting naked on horses, beaches, pianos, surfboards, statues and phallically suggestive tree trunks," saying, "I think that what we represent sexually is healthy. It's playful. It's not dark. It's not degrading! And it's not gay, and it's not straight, and it's not black, and it's not white. It's not about any labels. That would be cynical, and we're not cynical! It's all depicting this wonderful camaraderie, friendship, and playfulness that exist in this generation and, candidly, does not exist in the older generation."
As The New York Times states in their coverage of Tuesday's arrest, the three defendants could face at least 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. A conviction on the interstate prostitution charges could result in a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
