UPDATE
Oct 26, 2024 8:30 AM CDT
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges of federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution, with his lawyer entering the plea for him in court in Long Island's Central Islip, reports the AP. The 80-year-old—who the Washington Post notes was accompanied by his wife and son and "limped out of the courtroom, drawing attention to the GPS monitor that he must wear while awaiting trial"—didn't comment during the proceedings. Jeffries was released on $10 million bond and is due back in court on Dec. 12. Abercrombie, meanwhile, put out a statement after Jeffries' arrest earlier this week, saying it was "appalled and disgusted" by the allegations against the man who used to helm the company. If convicted, Jeffries could see at least 15 years behind bars on the sex trafficking charges and 20 years for the interstate prostitution charges.
Oct 22, 2024 9:45 AM CDT
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries and two other men have been arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Details of the criminal charges weren't immediately available, reports the AP. They come after years of sexual misconduct allegations, made in civil lawsuits and the media, from young people who said Jeffries lured them with promises of modeling work and then pressed them into sex acts. The FBI got in on the investigation earlier this year. Brooklyn-based US Attorney Breon Peace and FBI and police officials were set to hold a news conference later Tuesday.
One civil lawsuit filed in New York last year accused Abercrombie of allowing Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure. It said that Jeffries had modeling scouts scour the internet for victims, and that some prospective models became sex-trafficking victims. Abercrombie last year said it had hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation after a report on similar allegations was aired by the BBC. The BBC investigation included a dozen men who described being at events involving sex acts they said were staged by Jeffries and his partner, Matthew Smith, often at his home in New York and hotels in London, Paris, and elsewhere. Jeffries left Abercrombie & Fitch, based in New Albany, Ohio, in 2014.
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