Former Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries is arrested in a federal sex trafficking case

Mike Jeffries, who led Abercrombie & Fitch Co. for more than two decades, is under arrest as part of a federal investigation into a sex trafficking and interstate prostitution case. His arrest comes a year after allegations emerged in which eight men accused Jeffries and his entourage of sexually exploiting them at lavish parties around the world.

The case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, who will hold a press conference at noon ET along with the FBI and the New York Police Department’s Special Victims Unit.

Jeffries, who abruptly resigned from Abercrombie a decade ago, was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he will make his first court appearance on Tuesday. He will later be taken to New York for an arraignment.

Also arrested in the case: Matthew Smith, Jeffries’ longtime partner, who allegedly attended the parties with Jeffries; and James Jacobson, who allegedly recruited victims and acted as a middleman in arranging sex events.

Several of the men who made accusations against Jeffries were male models, as NPR reported last October. They described a dynamic in which money and the ability to obtain legitimate employment were used as leverage to get them to perform sex acts at events and at Jeffries’ then-home in the Hamptons.

“I think this experience has broken me,” one man told the BBC, which first reported the allegations. “I think this stole every ounce of innocence I had left. It messed me up mentally. But with the language I speak now, I can sit here and tell you I was taken advantage of.”

During his long tenure at A&F, Jeffries took the clothing brand to new heights. But he was also at the center of several controversies. In 2003, black, Latino and Asian American employees filed a class action lawsuit accusing the company of sidelining them (it was later settled). Accusations were also made that A&F’s magazine catalog had become a corporatized example of softcore porn.

Jeffries’ sudden departure in 2014 came after a prolonged sales slump for Abercrombie, as well as a series of splashy moves that did not benefit the company.

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