Former Abercrombie & Fitch boss Mike Jeffries has been released on bail after being charged with sickening sex crimes.
Jeffries, 80, was accused of running an international sex trafficking operation in a bombshell 16-count federal indictment.
He and his longtime partner Matthew Smith, 61, were arrested in West Palm Beach on Tuesday. A third man, Jim Jacobson, was arrested in the same case in Wisconsin.
Jefferies was released from jail on a $10 million bond by a magistrate at the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, later on Tuesday.
He grinned as he walked with his lawyers to a waiting car outside, wearing a dark blue jumper over a polo shirt and white short, and what appeared to be slippers.
Former Abercrombie & Fitch boss Mike Jeffries has been released on bail being charged with sickening sex crimes, grinning as he walked outside
Jefferies was released from jail on a $10 million bond by a magistrate at the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.
Jacobson was also released, on a $500,000 bond, but Smith was ordered to stay behind bars.
Jeffries and Jacobson will be arraigned at 3pm on Friday at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, Long Island, before US Magistrate Judge Steven Tiscione.
Federal prosecutors said they spoke with 15 men who claimed the trio used the power they held thanks to Jeffries’ role at Abercrombie to run a prostitution operation between December 2008 and March 2015.
Jeffries was the chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch between 1992 and 2014.
The alleged victims said they were had their genitals shaved against their will, were made to dress up, and subjected to ‘high-pressure enemas’.
Some victims were not gay and were allegedly given the powerful erection-causing drugs so they could be forced into gay sex against their will.
Jeffries was wearing a dark blue jumper over a polo shirt and white short, and what appeared to be slippers
Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith (left) are accused of recruiting men for sex parties and coercing them into sexual acts
Some of the men, identified as John Does in court documents, claimed they were targeted even though they were straight, and forced to have gay sex.
Prosecutors said the victims were paid to travel to places including New York City, the UK, France, Italy, Morocco, and Saint Barthelemy to have sex with Jeffries, Smith, and others.
Jeffries allegedly used a company he named the ‘Jeffries Family Office’ to recruit household staff to ‘facilitate and supervise the sex events’.
Prosecutors alleged the staff controlled the entry and exit to the sex parties and provided the men who attended with muscle relaxants known as ‘poppers’, as well as lubricant, Viagra, and condoms, among other items.
The staff allegedly also directed alleged victims to ‘wear costumes, use sex toys or prepare for particular sexual acts,’ according to court documents.
Smith and Jeffries were accused of injecting men in their penises with ‘a prescription-grade erection-inducing substance’ that caused painful, hours-long reactions to get them to engage in sex acts.
Jeffries was the chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch between 1992 and 2014
The men said they were recruited by a middleman identified as James Jacobson, who denies any wrongdoing
The men claimed weren’t informed of all that the parties would entail, including some of the sexual practices they’d be expected to engage in.
They were required to give up their clothes and cell phones during the gatherings and sign non-disclosure agreements afterward, the indictment alleged.
Jacobson was accused of travelling in the US and abroad to recruit and interview men for the sex parties. He allegedly used the nicknames ‘Jim Jake’, ‘Mrs Cook’, and ‘Todd’.
According to the indictment, Jacobson conducted ‘tryouts’ with potential candidates by paying them for sex with him.
At the direction of Smith, Jacobson also allegedly paid fees to people who referred men for the sex parties.
Jeffries poses with a shirt in Columbus, Ohio, in February 16, 1998. He was credited with transforming it into a darling of turn-of-the-millennium teen mall culture
Carlos Ortiz, Deputy Chief at Detective Bureau Special Victims Division, speaks during a press conference at the US Attorney’s office on October 22, 2024 in New York City
Prosecutors alleged the men were never told ‘the full extent and nature of the sexual activity that would be required’.
This allegedly included ‘anal intercourse, the insertion of large sex toys into the anus, and high-pressured enemas administered by inserting a hose into the anus’.
The alleged victims said they believed attending the sex parties could provide them with model opportunities with Abercrombie and that their careers could suffer if they did not comply.
The sex parties incorporated Abercrombie products, with victims being given itineraries for it that did not mention commercial sex and ‘resembled those often sent to models for photo shoots’.
When witnesses threatened to expose what was going on, Jeffries and Smith used a security company to surveil and intimidate them into silence, according to a letter prosecutors filed in court.
Barrett Pall, a former model turned life coach and activist, said he felt pressured into attending an event in the Hamptons in 2011
‘To 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 US Attorney Breon Peace said at a news conference.
‘Sexually exploiting vulnerable human beings is a crime. And doing so by dangling dreams of a future in fashion or modeling… is no different.’
James Dennehy, the assistant director of the FBI’s New York office, called the allegations ‘abhorrent’.
Jeffries’ attorney, Brian Bieber; and Smith’s lawyers, Joseph Nascimento and David Raben, declared via email they would respond to the allegations in court.
Peace said prosecutors had ‘a lot of evidence’, including travel records, financial documents, and testimony from accusers and witnesses.
The New Albany, Ohio, company, which also encompasses Hollister and other brands, declined to comment on his arrest.
Prosecutors didn’t claim the company’s resources or property were used in the alleged sex scheme.
Jeffries’ reign at Abercrombie & Fitch was dominated by its controversial brand image and the equally controversial remarks he made about his customer base
Abercrombie last year said it hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation after the BBC reported on 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.
At the time, Bieber declined to comment on the allegations.
Abercrombie & Fitch traces its roots to a hunting and outdoors goods store that was founded in 1892. By the time Jeffries arrived a century later, the brand was a retail also-ran.
He was credited with transforming it into a darling of turn-of-the-millennium teen mall culture, known for its nouveau-preppy aesthetic — and for its sexy ads and store events featuring shirtless, muscular male models.
But he also made headline for the wrong reasons over his claim that the brand was only for attractive people, in his dismissal of larger sizes.
‘We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong (in our clothes), and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely,’ he said in 2006.