October 23, 2024

USA: Former Abercrombie And Fitch CEO, His Partner, Business Associate Arrested On Charges Of International Sex Trafficking Ring Of Aspiring Male Models. He's Free On $10 Million Bond.

🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨

🚨NO ISLAMIC TERRORISTS INVOLVED🚨 
CBS New York published October 22, 2024: Former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.

Former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries is expected to face a judge in a Long Island courtroom this week after he was arrested in Florida on federal sex trafficking charges Tuesday. CBS News New York's Ali Bauman reports.
CBS News published October 22, 2024: What led to ex-Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries' sex trafficking charges?

The former CEO of clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has been arrested on federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges. Mike Jeffries, his partner and a third associate are accused of recruiting young men under the guise of modeling opportunities and coercing them to perform sex acts. BBC News investigations correspondent Rianna Croxford breaks down the case.
ABC News published October 22, 2024: Ex- Abercrombie & Fitch CEO charged with sex trafficking over a dozen alleged victims. Mike Jeffries, who stepped down from Abercrombie in 2014, is accused of trafficking and sexually abusing more than a dozen young men around the world, many of them aspiring models.

The Associated Press
written by Jennifer Peltz and Cedar Attanasio
Tuesday October 22, 2024

NEW YORK — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man were arrested Tuesday on charges of luring men into drug-laced, outlandish and coercive sex parties by dangling the promise of modeling for the retailer’s once-defining beefcake ads.

For almost 20 years, Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith and their employee James Jacobson used Jeffries’ status, wealth and a web of household staffers to fulfill the couple’s sexual desires and keep it all secret, according to a federal indictment.

“Sexually exploiting vulnerable human beings is a crime. And doing so by dangling dreams of a future in fashion or modeling ... is no different,” Brooklyn-based U.S. attorney Breon Peace said at a news conference. He called the case a warning “to anyone who thinks they can exploit and coerce others by using the so-called casting couch system.”

The charges echo sexual misconduct accusations made in a civil case and the media in recent years. Lawyers representing Jeffries in a federal sex trafficking lawsuit have said he “vehemently denies” those allegations.

Jeffries wore a broad smile but didn’t comment Tuesday as he left a federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Fla., after being released on a $10 million bond. His attorney, Brian Bieber, also didn’t comment.

Smith, a dual U.S.- British citizen, was ordered detained after prosecutors raised concerns that he might flee the country.

His lawyers, Joseph Nascimento and David Raben, and Bieber said by email they would respond to the allegations in court “when appropriate.”

Jacobson didn’t address the charges during his court appearance in St. Paul, Minnesota, other than to say, “I understand what they claim,” and didn’t comment as he left the courthouse on $500,000 bond.

Jacobson has said previously that he didn’t engage in or know about any coercive, deceptive or forceful behavior. Messages seeking comment were sent to his attorney.

The three defendants are charged with sex trafficking and interstate prostitution involving 15 unnamed accusers.

The case is the latest sex crime prosecution of a prominent and wealthy man — from Sean “Diddy” Combs to Harvey Weinstein — accused of abusing his position as a star or possible star-maker, though the status of the cases and important aspects of the allegations vary. An early accuser of the late Jeffrey Epstein said he groped her during a 1997 meeting arranged as a modeling interview for the Victoria’s Secret catalog.

According to the indictment, Jacobson, Jeffries and Smith paid for dozens of men to travel to engage in sex with them and other men in New York and at hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts between 2008 and 2015. The sometimes graphic indictment describes sexual bacchanals in which the recruited men were given drugs, lubricant, condoms, costumes, sex toys and, sometimes, erection-inducing penile injections that caused painful, hourslong reactions.

The men weren’t told ahead of time what sexual practices they’d be expected to engage in — indeed, some itineraries simply resembled those for models’ photo shoots — and they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements, the indictment said.

The defendants duped the men — at least one as young as 19, and some of them former Abercrombie store workers — into thinking they’d get Abercrombie modeling gigs, or that refusing to engage in the sexual encounters could harm their prospects, prosecutors said in court documents.

They said the men typically underwent “tryouts” by having sex first with Jacobson, who acted as a recruiter for his bosses.

Peace said at the news conference that prosecutors have “a lot of evidence,” including travel records, financial documents and testimony from accusers and witnesses.

Jeffries left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014. The New Albany, Ohio-based company, which also encompasses Hollister, declined to comment on his arrest.

Prosecutors don’t allege that the company’s resources or property were used in the alleged sex scheme.

Abercrombie last year said it had hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation after the BBC reported on similar allegations from a dozen men.

Founded as a hunting and outdoors goods store in 1892, Abercrombie & Fitch was a retail also-ran when Jeffries arrived a century later.

He was credited with transforming it into a darling of turn-of-the-millennium teen mall culture, known for its nouveau-preppy aesthetic and sexy marketing that featured shirtless, muscular male models. Jeffries talked openly about how the company went after attractive kids who could fit into its clothes.

Those remarks alienated customers who didn’t fit — literally or otherwise — the brand’s image, and the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession prompted some teens to look to less expensive “fast fashion” chains. By the time Jeffries left, the company’s sales were slumping.

A few months after his departure, the retailer announced it would stop using “sexualized” photos in marketing materials in its shops and calling store staffers “models.” The company told regional managers it wouldn’t “tolerate discrimination based on body type or physical attractiveness.”

Abercrombie has rebounded in recent years.

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NBC News
written by Jonathan Dienst, Tom Winter and Marlene Lenthang
Tuesday October 22, 2024

In court Tuesday, Jeffries, wearing a blue polo shirt and white shorts, was shackled in a jury box as he conferred with his attorney, Brian H. Bieber.

A federal indictment alleges Jeffries — along with Smith, his romantic partner, and Jacobson, who was described as a recruiter — operated an "international sex trafficking and prostitution business” from 2008 to 2015.

It alleges that they organized “sex events” in England, France, Italy, Morocco, St. Barts, New York City and the Hamptons for Jeffries, Smith and “others.” They “employed coercive, fraudulent and deceptive tactics in connection with the recruitment, hiring, transportation, obtaining, maintaining, solicitation and payment of the men to engage in commercial sex,” it says.

The men who attended the events were led to believe that it could lead to modeling opportunities or help their careers or “that not complying with requests for certain acts during the Sex Events could harm their careers," the indictment alleges.

The youngest of the alleged victims was 19, prosecutors said in a memo to the court Tuesday.

“Many of the victims, at least one of whom was as young as 19 years old, were financially vulnerable and aspired to become models in the fashion industry, a notoriously cutthroat world,” the memo says. “Indeed, some of the men they recruited had previously worked at Abercrombie stores or modeled for Abercrombie.”

The men were required to sign nondisclosure agreements and surrender their wallets and cellphones during the events, prosecutors said.

Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson are also alleged to have recruited, hired and paid an exclusive set of household staff members to “facilitate and supervise the sex events.”

The staff members provided Jeffries, Smith and the men who attended with alcohol, muscle relaxants known as "poppers," lubricant, Viagra and condoms, among other items, the indictment says. Either Jacobson or the staff members paid the men for attending the sex events, it says.

The trio employed a "full-service security company" to administer nondisclosure agreements, conduct background checks and monitor and, if necessary, intimidate victims, prosecutors alleged in their detention memo.

"On occasions when witnesses threatened to expose or sue them, Jeffries and Smith relied on the services of a security company to surveil and intimidate those individuals, thereby securing their silence," it said.

The trio used burner phones for communication, the memo alleges.

Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at a news conference that Jeffries and Smith spent millions on the sex trafficking enterprise — from paying staff members to paying for travel to paying to maintain secrecy.

The detention memo says some victims were paid directly in cash that amounted to "hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Peace said the operation used a referral system and interview process, during which the men who were allegedly preyed upon were not informed about the details of the sex events before they attended. During those “tryouts” of potential candidates, Jacobson typically had candidates first engage in commercial sex acts with him, the indictment says.

At the events, the men were pressured to drink and consume poppers, and "on more than one occasion when men did not or could not consent, Jeffries and Smith violated the bodily integrity of these men by subjecting them or continuing to subject them to invasive sexual and violent contact by body parts and other objects," Peace said.

Jeffries and Smith ordered staff members to inject some victims with "a prescription-grade erection-inducing substance for the purpose of causing the men to engage in sex acts in which they were otherwise physically incapable or unwilling," the detention memo alleges.

Prosecutors said they have "dozens of witnesses" who may testify, according to the document.

"Powerful individuals, for too long, have trafficked and abused for their own sexual pleasure young people with few resources in a dream, a dream of securing a successful career in fashion or entertainment," Peace said. He warned people who think they can exploit or coerce by using the "so-called casting couch system" to "prepare to trade that couch for a bed in federal prison."

Peace said his office became aware of the allegations through media reports.

The BBC published an explosive report a year ago that said Jeffries had been accused of exploiting men at sex parties he hosted. The report said that 12 men described having attended or organized events that included sex acts for Jeffries and his partner, Smith, and that those events took place from 2009 to 2015. Some of the men who spoke to the BBC said they were exploited or did not participate willingly.

Bieber, Jeffries’ attorney, told NBC News at the time that Jeffries would not comment on reports about his personal life. Abercrombie & Fitch said it was “appalled and disgusted” by the allegations in the BBC report.

Jeffries presided as Abercrombie expanded its retail footprint and began posting 10-digit annual earnings. The rise was followed by a fall as fast-fashion stores offered competing products for much lower prices. And Abercrombie was shunned for its use of sinewy, overwhelmingly white models and for selling T-shirts that were decidedly racist. The company also faced multiple discrimination lawsuits during Jeffries' reign.

Bieber said Tuesday in a statement in response to Jeffries' arrest: “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.”

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