Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries arrested on sex trafficking charges

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has been arrested on sex trafficking charges, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors has said.

Matthew Smith, Jeffries’ partner, and a third man, James Jacobson, have also been arrested on the same charges.

Jeffries and Smith were arrested in Florida and will appear in court on Tuesday afternoon in West Palm Beach.

Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin. There was no immediate information on a court appearance.

Abercrombie & Fitch has declined to comment on Jeffries’ arrest.

At a news conference in New York, Breon Peace, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Jeffries used his “power, his wealth and his influence, to traffic men for his own sexual pleasure and that of his romantic partner, Matthew Smith”.

Mr Peace said the indictment alleged Jeffries and Smith employed Jacobson “to act as a recruiter to find men”.

Jacobson would “engage in ‘tryouts’ with men across the world where he would typically pay them to engage in sex acts with him”.

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Smith would then decide who would meet him and Jeffries and the selected men would be flown to Jeffries’ and Smith’s homes or to hotels around the world “for the purpose of attending events to engage in commercial sex”.

Mr Peace alleged all three defendants “used force, fraud and coercion to traffic those men for their own sexual gratification”.

James E Dennehy, the FBI’s assistant director in charge in New York, said the indictment “highlights the abhorrent behaviour” of Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson.

He said the allegations are “not only beyond disturbing, dishonourable and disgraceful but simply put, it’s criminal”.

It comes after several sexual misconduct allegations – including a lawsuit filed in New York last year accusing Abercrombie of allowing Jeffries to run a sex trafficking organisation during his 22-year tenure.

Jeffries’ attorney, Brian Bieber, said in an email to the Associated Press he would “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”.

Information on attorneys for the other defendants wasn’t immediately available.

Lawyers for Jeffries and Smith have previously denied any wrongdoing.

Jeffries left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014.

Abercrombie last year said it had hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation after a report on similar allegations was aired by the BBC.