The FBI is reportedly investigating allegations that the former CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch sexually exploited and abused young men at events he hosted around the world.
Mike Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith are facing claims they ran a sex trafficking operation, allegedly engaging in sexual activity with a series of men at their New York homes and at luxury hotels around the world.
The allegations first came to light last October following a BBC investigation, when eight men came forward to claim they had been exploited by Mr Jeffries and his partner.
FBI agents specialising in sex crimes, working with prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York, are now understood to be interviewing potential witnesses and have issued subpoenas, the BBC said.
Neither Mr Jeffries nor Mr Smith have ever commented publicly on the allegations made against them, but it has been reported that a middleman denied any wrongdoing and said the men went into these events “with their eyes wide open”.’
Mr Jeffries took charge of Abercrombie and Fitch as chief executive officer in 1992, and was instrumental in the clothing firm’s global expansion and the launch of spinoff brands including Hollister and Gilly Hicks.
In the mid-2000s, the company was grossing $2 billion a year and Mr Jeffries was among the highest paid bosses in global retail. He stepped down as chief executive in 2014.
The BBC’s report in October included claims that Mr Jeffries and his partner engaged in sex with the young men or directed them to have sex with each other.
In the wake of the claims, Abercrombie and Fitch was accused in a civil lawsuit of allowing Mr Jeffries to run a sex trafficking operation between 1992 and 2014.
The retailer is named as a defendant alongside Mr Jeffries, Mr Smith, and Jeffries's Ohio-based company Jeffries Family Office.
The lawsuit, brought in Delaware in the US by a former Abercrombie and Fitch model, claims more than 100 young men were “ensnared” by Mr Jeffries, with the offer of free clothes, gift cards, and false offers of modelling opportunities.
Abercrombie and Fitch, which responded to the original allegations by saying it was "appalled and disgusted", has suspended part of Mr Jeffries' $1 million a year pension payments.
When questioned about the civil lawsuit, a lawyer for Mr Jeffries told the BBC: "The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter."
