Shocking details of Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries’ horrific ‘sex crimes’ against 15 men

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has been charged with running an international sex trafficking operation in a 16-count federal indictment.

Jeffries, 80, and his longtime partner Matthew Smith, 61, were arrested Tuesday in West Palm Beach. A third man, Jim Jacobson, was arrested in the same case in Wisconsin.

Federal prosecutors say they have spoken to 15 male victims, who allege that between December 2008 and March 2015, the trio used the power they had from Jeffries’ role at Abercrombie to run a prostitution operation.

Jeffries worked as CEO for Abercrombie from 1992 to 2014.

The alleged victims say they were forcibly given erection health drugs, had their genitals shaved against their will, made to change clothes and subjected to “high-pressure enemas.” Some victims were not gay and were given the powerful erection-inducing drugs so that they could be forced into gay sex against their will.

Jeffries worked as CEO for Abercrombie from 1992 to 2014

Some men, identified in court documents as John Does, claim they were targeted even though they were straight and forced to have gay sex.

Prosecutors say the victims were paid to travel to New York City, England, France, Italy, Morocco and Saint Barthelemy, among other places, to have sex with Jeffries, Smith and others.

Jeffries allegedly used a company he called the Jeffries Family Office to recruit domestic workers to “facilitate and supervise the sex events.”

Prosecutors say staff controlled the entrance and exit of the sex parties and provided the men attending with muscle relaxants known as “poppers,” as well as lubricant, Viagra and condoms, among other items.

The staff also instructed alleged victims to “wear costumes, use sex toys or prepare for certain sexual acts,” according to court documents.

Smith and Jeffries are accused of injecting men into their penises with “an erection-inducing drug” that caused painful, hours-long reactions to induce them to engage in sex acts.

The men said they were recruited by an intermediary identified as James Jacobson, who denies any wrongdoing

Jeffries poses with a shirt in Columbus, Ohio, on February 16, 1998. He is said to have transformed it into a darling of turn-of-the-millennium teen shopping culture.

The men were unaware of all that the events would entail, including some of the sexual practices expected of them, and were required to give up their clothing and cell phones and sign non-disclosure agreements during the meetings. afterward, the complaint said.

Jacobson is accused of traveling in the US and abroad to recruit and interview men for the sex parties. He would go by the nicknames ‘Jim Jake’, ‘Mrs. Cook’ and ‘Todd.’

According to the indictment, Jacobson would conduct “tryouts” with potential candidates by paying them to have sex with him. At Smith’s direction, Jacobson also allegedly paid fees to individuals who referred men for the sex parties.

But prosecutors say the men were never told “the full extent and nature of sexual activity that would be required,” which reportedly included “anal intercourse, the insertion of large sex toys into the anus and high-pressure enemas administered by inserting a tube. in the anus.’

Carlos Ortiz, deputy chief of Detective Bureau Special Victims Division, speaks during a press conference at the United States Attorney’s Office on October 22, 2024 in New York City

The alleged victims say they believed that attending the sex parties could land them modeling opportunities at Abercrombie and that their careers could suffer if they didn’t comply.

The sex parties used Abercrombie products, with victims given itineraries that made no mention of commercial sex and “resembled the itineraries often sent to models for photo shoots.”

When witnesses threatened to reveal what was going on, Jeffries and Smith used a security company to monitor them and intimidate them into silence, according to a letter prosecutors filed with the court.

Barrett Pall, a former model turned life coach and activist, said he felt pressured to attend an event in the Hamptons in 2011.

“For anyone who thinks they can exploit and coerce others by using the so-called casting couch system, this case should serve as a warning,” Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said at a news conference.

‘The sexual exploitation of vulnerable people is a crime. And if you do that by dangling dreams of a future in fashion or the modeling world… that’s no different,” he added.

James Dennehy, the deputy director of the FBI’s New York office, called the allegations “abhorrent.”

Jeffries’ attorney, Brian Bieber, and Smith’s attorneys, Joseph Nascimento and David Raben, said by email that they would respond to the allegations in court.

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

All three suspects are scheduled to appear in separate courts later Tuesday: Jeffries and Smith in Florida, where they were taken into custody, and Jacobson in St. Paul, Minnesota, following his arrest in Wisconsin.

Jeffries became CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch in 1992 and left in 2014. The New Albany, Ohio-based company, which includes Hollister and other brands, declined to comment on his arrest.

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

Jeffries’ reign at Abercrombie & Fitch was dominated by the controversial brand image and the equally controversial comments he made about his customer base

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

A lawsuit filed in New York last year accused Abercrombie of allowing Jeffries to run a sex trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure, with modeling scouts scouring the Internet for victims. Bieber declined to comment on the allegations at the time.

Abercrombie & Fitch traces its roots to a hunting and outdoors store founded in 1892. By the time Jeffries arrived a century later, the brand was also a retail business.

He was credited with transforming it into a darling of turn-of-the-millennium teen shopping culture, known for its nouveau-preppy aesthetic — and for its sexy ads and retail events featuring shirtless, muscular male models.