The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffries, was detained on Tuesday (October 22) on charges of interstate prostitution and sex trafficking.
Jeffries was taken into custody in Florida's West Palm Beach. In addition, two associates, James Jacobson of Wisconsin and Matthew Smith of West Palm Beach, were taken into custody on suspicion of sex trafficking.
Jeffries and Smith then made their first court appearances in West Palm Beach on Tuesday.
Later that day, Jeffries was freed on a $10m (£7.7m) bond. He was placed under house detention with GPS monitoring, prohibited from travelling without permission, and has to turn in his passport, according to an order from US Magistrate Judge Bruce E Reinhart.
Smith consented to custody in the same courthouse until the case is heard in New York state.
Lawyers for both Jeffries and Smith - who is the former’s partner - have said the two men “vehemently deny” any wrongdoing.
Jacobson and Jeffries were expected to appear for arraignment on Friday, October 25, in federal court in Islip. In addition to 15 counts of interstate prostitution connected to 15 alleged victims, Jeffries, Smith, and Jacobson are each facing one count of sex trafficking.
Who is Mike Jeffries?
Jeffries is an American businessman who was chairman and CEO of clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, he is the son of Donald R Jeffries, who owned a chain of party supply stores.
He attended Claremont Men’s College and the London School of Economics, before working in different roles at several department stores including Abraham & Straus, Alcott & Andrews, and Paul Harris.
In 1992, Jeffries took over Abercrombie & Fitch as chairman and CEO of the business.
He radically altered the company's emphasis, image, and brand during that time, resulting in a somewhat contentious but highly successful turnaround in the 1990s and early 2000s.
He resigned in 2014 following a run of subpar outcomes from the 2007–2008 financial crisis onwards, along with criticism of the brand he created.
Jeffries was an opinionated businessman who made controversial public statements.
On one occasion, he said: “We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that.”
He added that: “Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either.”
The company attracted other types of controversy.
A class action complaint was brought against the corporation in 2003 by Black, Asian American, and Latino employees who claimed the company prohibited minority applicants from applying.
What are the allegations made against Jeffries?
According to a federal indictment, Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson, a recruiter, ran an “international sex-trafficking and prostitution business” between 2008 and 2015.
They allegedly planned "sex events" for Jeffries, his partner and "others" in the UK, France, Italy, Morocco, St Barts, New York City, and the Hamptons.
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,” it says.
According to the indictment, the men who attended the gatherings were misled into thinking doing so could lead to modelling opportunities – and that “not complying with requests for certain acts during the sex events could harm their careers”.
The youngest of the alleged victims was 19, prosecutors told the court in a statement on Tuesday.
“Indeed, some of the men they recruited had previously worked at Abercrombie stores or modelled for Abercrombie,” they said.
Prosecutors say the men had to give up their telephones and wallets and sign nondisclosure agreements.
Additionally, it is claimed that Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson sought out, employed, and compensated a select group of domestic workers in order to “facilitate and supervise the sex events”.
The indictment claims the staff members supplied Jeffries, Smith, and the men who attended with lubrication, alcohol, condoms and Viagra, amongst other things. It claims either Jacobson or the employees compensated the men for going to the sex events.
Abercrombie & Fitch has been approached for comment.
