Former president and CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Michael Jeffries, along with two other men, has been arrested for sex trafficking and interstate prostitution, according to information provided by a federal prosecutor's spokesperson on Tuesday. Details of the criminal charges have not yet been revealed.
These charges come after years of accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct made both in civil lawsuits and in the media. Young people have claimed that Jeffries lured them with job offers as models and then pressured them to have sex.
Jeffries' lawyer, Brian Bieber, stated via email that he will respond to the allegations in court and not through the media. Information about the lawyers for the other defendants is not currently available.
Jeffries left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014. It has been said that the businessman recruited models through the web and some of them became victims of sex trafficking. Last year, the company hired an external law firm to conduct an independent investigation following reports of similar allegations.
The BBC investigation revealed events involving sexual acts organized by Jeffries and his associate, Matthew Smith, at various locations including his residence in New York and hotels in London, Paris, and other sites. A civil lawsuit in New York accused Abercrombie of allowing a sex trafficking scheme during Jeffries' 22-year tenure.
Michael Jeffries, born in Los Angeles in 1944, is an entrepreneur who graduated from Claremont Men's College and the London School of Economics, with an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1968. He led Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014.