THE former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has reportedly been arrested after he was investigated for sex trafficking.
Mike Jeffries, 80, has been accused of coercing young men into having sex with him or each other at parties with promises of modeling for his brand.
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries at a store opening on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 2005Getty
GettyJeffries was the mastermind behind Abercrombie’s brand from the 1990s through the early 2000s[/caption]
GettyThe brand was defined by shirtless male models flaunting their abs[/caption]
Jeffries, his partner Matt Smith, 61, and a third man, Jim Jacobson, were arrested on Thursday after a federal investigation was launched in January, sources told ABC News.
That investigation came one year after over 100 alleged victims filed a civil suit against Jeffries and accused him of running a seedy sex trafficking scheme using Abercrombie’s name.
After the reported arrest, lawyer Brad Edwards, who is representing the accusers, said the alleged scheme, “permeated throughout the company and allowed the three individuals arrested today to victimize dozens and dozens of young, aspiring male models.”
Smith and Jeffries’ lawyers previously denied any allegations of wrongdoing, saying, “The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter.”
Jeffries first came under fire after the BBC published an investigation where several former models came forward with disturbing tales of performing sexual favors in the hopes they could be an Abercrombie model.
Between the 1990s and the early 2000s, young men were allegedly scouted by Jacobson, who groomed them by performing oral sex or asking them to perform oral sex of him.
Then, the hopeful models would be invited to perverse Abercrombie parties where they would be enticed to have sex with Jeffries, Smith, or each other, they told the BBC.
One man said, at a party, he remembers Jeffries trying to kiss him before his drink was allegedly spiked and he blacked out.
The next morning, he woke up and found a condom inside himself.
“When I put things together, I believe there is a very good possibility I was drugged and raped,” he told the BBC.
“I’ll probably never, never know for sure the answer of what happened.”
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York to confirm the arrest.
PRICE OF FAME
David Bradberry, a former hopeful model, said Jacobson allegedly made it clear that if he didn’t perform the sexual behavior, he would never be considered for a job.
“It should have been a red flag. I wanted to believe this was an opportunity to meet someone who could make all my dreams come true,” he told the BBC.
Barrett Pall, another model, described feeling like a “caged animal” while in Jeffries’ audience.
“I was not a human to any of these people. I was a body,” he told the outlet.
“I was being presented to someone, to do what they wanted with.
“What happened to me changed my life – and not for the better.”
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