Michael Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, and two others have been taken into custody on charges related to sex trafficking and interstate prostitution, according to a representative for federal prosecutors on Tuesday.
The specifics of the criminal charges were not immediately disclosed. These arrests follow a series of sexual misconduct allegations spanning several years, which were made in civil lawsuits and media reports by young individuals who claimed Jeffries enticed them with offers of modeling work and then coerced them into sexual acts.
In an email response, quoted by AP, Jeffries’ lawyer, Brian Bieber, said that he would “respond in detail to the allegations after the indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse — not the media.”
Details regarding the legal representation for the other defendants were not readily available.
Jeffries departed from Abercrombie & Fitch, headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, in 2014. A civil lawsuit filed in New York last year alleged that Abercrombie permitted Jeffries to operate a sex-trafficking ring during his 22-year tenure. The lawsuit claimed that Jeffries employed modeling scouts to scour the internet for potential victims, and some of these aspiring models became victims of sex trafficking.
Last year, Abercrombie stated that they had engaged an external law firm to conduct an independent investigation following a BBC report that aired similar allegations. The BBC investigation featured twelve men who described attending events involving sexual acts, which they alleged were orchestrated by Jeffries and his partner, Matthew Smith, often taking place at Jeffries’ residence in New York and hotels in various cities such as London and Paris.