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Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Indicted On Sex Trafficking Charges

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Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man were arrested Tuesday on charges of luring dozens of men into sex parties around the world, sometimes by dangling the promise of modeling for the clothing retailer. Jeffries, partner Matthew Smith and their employee James Jacobson “operated an international sex trafficking and prostitution business” from 2008 to 2015, using Jeffries’ status, wealth and a web of household staffers to fulfill the couple’s sexual desires and keep it all secret, said an indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, reports the Associated Press.


The charges come after sexual misconduct allegations in lawsuits and the media, from young people who said Jeffries promised modeling work and then pressed them into sex acts. Jeffries and Smith were arrested in Florida; Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin. The indictment said they paid for dozens of men to travel within the U.S. and internationally to engage in commercial sex with them and other men in New York and at hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts. The recruited men were given drugs, lubricant, condoms, costumes, sex toys and, sometimes, erection-inducing penile injections that caused painful, hourslong reactions. The defendants led the men to believe that attending the events would help their careers, including their chances of getting Abercrombie modeling gigs — or that not complying could harm their prospects, the indictment says. Jeffries became CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch in 1992 and left in 2014.

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