Mike Jeffries, former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitchwas arrested this Tuesday for sex trafficking. Two other people related to the former executive were also detained within the framework of the same investigation, which is being conducted by the Eastern District of New York. The indictment, for more than a dozen crimes, alleges that between December 2008 and March 2015, Jeffries and two other associates participated in a sex trafficking scheme in which they recruited aspiring male models, according to a source familiar with the matter. case cited by CNN. A second source claims that they also allegedly organized sexual-themed parties in which future models were given drugs, alcohol and Viagra to perform sexual acts with the attendees.
The three accused were arrested on Tuesday morning. Two of them, including Jeffries, are scheduled to make their first appearance later in the day in federal court for the Southern District of Florida. The third party’s initial appearance is scheduled for this afternoon in federal court for the Western District of Wisconsin. All three will be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date, according to sources.
Jeffries came under intense scrutiny in 2023, after a BBC investigation alleged that the former CEO and his partner Matthew Smith used an intermediary to recruit and sexually exploit young people. Dozens of men filed a lawsuit last year against Jeffries and Abercrombie & Fitch, alleging that the former CEO used his position at the company to perpetrate and enable abuse. The brand declared itself shocked by the allegations and launched an independent investigation into the matter. Jeffries was CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 until 2014, when the company announced his retirement.
As CEO for more than two decades, Jeffries transformed Abercrombie & Fitch into a global brand trendy for teenagers and young people, often with provocative marketing. After collapsing on the stock market in 2022its shares offered the best stock market performance throughout 2023 in the S&P 1500 index, with growth of up to 285% in just twelve months. The data represents the best annual performance of the firm since its listing in 1996 and confirmation of the miraculous reinvention of a phenomenon that triumphed in the retail in the first decade of this century with a strategy focused on a fashion with a white, privileged, hypersexualized looka—especially the Apollonian male models—and exclusive of the diversity assumed by the rest of its competitors.
