File: Mike Jeffries, then Abercrombie & Fitch CEO in 2005.
Michael Loccisano | FilmMagic | Getty Photos
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was arrested in Florida and faces intercourse trafficking-related prices, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, advised CNBC on Tuesday.
Two of Jeffries’ associates, Matthew Smith of West Palm Seashore, Florida, and James Jacobson of Wisconsin, are additionally being charged in reference to the case, the spokesman mentioned.
The prison case comes a 12 months after Abercrombie, Jeffries and Smith had been sued in Manhattan federal courtroom for allegedly turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct by the previous CEO.
Jeffries was accused in that federal civil lawsuit of working a intercourse trafficking ring that exploited younger males who had hoped to grow to be fashions for the corporate.
Jeffries and Smith will make their preliminary courtroom look later Tuesday in federal courtroom within the Southern District of Florida. Jacobson shall be introduced in U.S. District Courtroom for the Western District of Wisconsin.
All three males shall be arraigned in U.S. District Courtroom within the Japanese District of New York at a later date, the spokesman mentioned.
Brian Bieber, an lawyer for Michael Jeffries, advised NBC Information in a press release, “We are going to reply intimately to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed, and when applicable, however plan to take action within the courthouse – not the media.”
Abercrombie & Fitch declined CNBC’s request for remark.
The information broke hours earlier than federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had been set to carry a press convention to announce the arrests of a “former CEO of a serious firm” and two others in a “intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution case.”
That presser is ready for 12 p.m. ET.
The beforehand filed civil lawsuit in opposition to Abercrombie alleges that the corporate has already settled a number of complaints “associated to improper acts of Jeffries or Smith, a few of which had been associated to sexual harassment or abuse.”
An amended grievance in that case, filed in September, notes that the BBC discovered after a 2023 investigation that “Jeffries and Smith sexually exploited what’s believed to be over 100 males throughout Abercrombie occasions they hosted world wide.”
Lawyer Brittany Henderson of Edwards Henderson, the regulation agency representing the plaintiff within the class-action case, mentioned in a press release to CNBC, “Right this moment’s arrests are monumental for the aspiring male fashions who had been victimized by these people.”
“Their combat for justice doesn’t finish right here. We look ahead to holding Abercrombie and Fitch answerable for facilitating this horrible conduct and guaranteeing that this can not occur once more,” Henderson mentioned.
Jeffries served as CEO of Abercrombie from 1992 by means of 2014. Smith was described within the civil lawsuit as Jeffries’ long-time associate and “somebody with obvious authority who Abercrombie allowed to work extensively for the model regardless of not holding an official place inside the firm.”
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— CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge contributed reporting.
