Former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has been arrested for sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.
Jeffries’ British partner Matthew Smith were arrested in West Palm Beach on Thursday, according to ABC News. A third man, Jim Jacobson, was arrested in the same case in Wisconsin.
The three men are accused of sexually exploiting and abusing young men at parties they hosted in the US and around the world.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said in January they had launched a criminal probe after several men publicly claimed they were abused by Jeffries and his partner, 80 and 61.
Jeffries and his long-time partner were last year accused in a bombshell BBC documentary of engaging in sex trafficking between 2009 and 2015. They have denied the allegations.
The partners are expected to appear in federal court later on Tuesday.
Accusers Barrett Pall and David Bradberry claimed they were recruited for ‘modelling opportunities’ through a middleman – Jacobson – but found themselves sexually exploited.
More than a dozen men have said they were approached and coerced into attending sex parties curated for Jeffries’ entertainment.
A lawyer for Jeffries has previously said ‘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.’
The BBC said it has corroborated the accounts with emails, flight tickets and travel itineraries, as well as former members of Jeffries’ household staff.
Jacobson, described by one man as having a ‘snakeskin patch nose’, is alleged to have acted as a middleman, finding men for sex events and propositioning them for oral sex in twisted ‘auditions.’
He has denied any wrongdoing, telling the BBC he took offence at the suggestion of ‘any coercive, deceptive or forceful behavior on my part’, adding that every encounter he had was ‘fully consensual.’
In October, accuser Bradberry launched a lawsuit against the retailer over the couple’s alleged misdeeds.
Bradberry filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that Jeffries had modeling scouts scouring the internet and elsewhere to identify attractive young men seeking to be the next face of Abercrombie.
Often these prospective models became sex-trafficking victims, sent to New York and abroad and abused by Jeffries and other men, all under the guise that they were being recruited to become the next Abercrombie model, the lawsuit contends.
‘Jeffries was so important to the profitability of the brand that he was given complete autonomy to perform his role as CEO however he saw fit, including through the use of blatant international sex-trafficking and abuse of prospective Abercrombie models,’ the suit alleges.
Attorneys for the victims of the class action lawsuit said on Tuesday that ‘today’s arrests are monumental for the aspiring male models who were victimized by these individuals.’
‘We look forward to holding Abercrombie and Fitch liable for facilitating this terrible conduct and ensuring that this cannot happen again,’ the statement added.
Abercrombie has previously said it is ‘appalled and disgusted’ by the allegations against Jeffries.
Jeffries, who left Abercrombie in 2014, converted the chain from an struggling retailer of hunting apparel to a seller of must-have teen clothing. But he faced criticism for the company’s sexualized marketing, including billboards and beefy models that alienated potential customers who didn’t fit into its image.
While Jeffries is still legally married to his wife of over 40 years Susan Jeffries, he has reportedly been in a relationship with Smith for over 20 years.
Men who spoke on BBC’s World of Secrets podcast said they were molested at sex events held in grand hotel rooms and even injected with what they were told was ‘liquid Viagra’ – to which one person suffered a severe reaction.
In addition, one alleged abuse survivor claimed one of Jeffries’ assistants had been working for A&F as he supervised the sex events – reportedly using a company email address.
The eight men who spoke to the BBC say they were exploited by Jeffries and Smith, who have denied the allegations.
One man, given the name Luke to protect his identity, said he was recruited from a modelling website and guided into a hotel suite in Spain that had been dressed up to resemble an A&F store in a twisted roleplay scenario.
He claimed he was encouraged to act as one of the store’s infamous shirtless greeters to impress ‘two very important guests’ – Jeffries and Smith – who then forcibly kissed him and tried to perform oral sex on him.
Luke recalled: ‘I was trying to avoid the whole situation as much as I could, but Michael was very aggressive. I tried to say no repeatedly. I constantly was saying no.’
However, he felt unable to leave as assistants were ‘watching (the) exits’. An assistant from Jeffries’ private office had interviewed him on Skype for what he believed was going to be a photoshoot.
His travel and accommodation was paid for, and he was given €3,500 in cash and made to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
‘There’s an immense amount of shame associated with this idea that you’re not a masculine man if you’ve been molested or taken advantage of by another man,’ Luke, who identifies as straight, told the podcast.
Another attendee named Chris said he was injected in the penis with what we was told was ‘liquid Viagra’ by one of Jeffries’ assistants, who was not medically trained.
He suffered a reaction, feeling ‘hot, dizzy’ and in shock after he was allegedly injected in a Manhattan townhouse that once belonged to the fashion boss.
However, he claimed nobody called an ambulance. Instead, Jeffries and Smith are alleged to have tried to have sex with him.
