Former Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries arrested in sex trafficking case

Michael Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014, was arrested Tuesday and faces sex trafficking charges.

Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith were arrested in Florida and are expected to appear in court today, October 22nd. The New York Times Reports. Another person, James Jacobson, was arrested in connection with the case in Wisconsin. All three men are scheduled to be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date.

The arrest comes a year after Jeffries was accused in a class-action lawsuit of using a middleman (Jacobson) to lure men to events that offered the prospect of modeling jobs in Abercrombie. According to a BBC investigation, some men at these events said they were sexually exploited or abused by Jeffries and Smith.

According to the BBC, between 2009 and 2015, Jeffries hosted the young models at events at his New York homes and hotels in London, Paris, Venice and Marrakech. Jeffries and Smith allegedly had sex with the men or “referred” them to them. have sex with each other. They were allegedly offered envelopes containing thousands of dollars in cash and were often asked to sign nondisclosure agreements. CNN reported that the models were allegedly given drugs, alcohol and Viagra to perform the sexual acts at the events in question.

“I think this experience broke me,” Barrett Pall, a former model who accused Jeffries of groping him, told the BBC. “I think it took away every ounce of innocence I had left. It messed me up mentally. But with the language I have today, I can sit here and tell you that I was taken advantage of.”

Brian Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, did not immediately respond Rolling Stone's request for comment on Tuesday's arrest, but said the Just he would “detail the allegations in detail” in court. Brittany Henderson, who represents the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against Jeffries and Abercrombie, said the arrests were “monumental” for his alleged victims.

“Your fight for justice doesn’t end here,” Henderson said The times. “Our customers look forward to holding Abercrombie and Fitch liable for enabling this terrible behavior and ensuring it cannot happen again.”

Following the BBC investigation last year, Abercrombie said it was “appalled and outraged” by Jeffries' behavior and hired a private law firm to investigate the claims. Jacobson, who allegedly acted as an intermediary, told the BBC in a statement last year that he was annoyed by the suggestion of “any coercive, fraudulent or violent behavior on my part.”

“Every encounter I've had has been completely consensual and not forced,” he told the outlet. “Everyone I came into contact with who attended these events went in with their eyes wide open.”