Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has been arrested on sex trafficking charges, a spokesperson for federal prosecutors has said.
Matthew Smith, Jeffries’ partner, and a third man James Jacobson have also been arrested on the same charges.
Jeffries and Smith were arrested in Florida and are due to make an initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon in West Palm Beach.
Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin. There was no immediate information on a court appearance.
Abercrombie & Fitch has declined to comment on Jeffries’ arrest.
Men were selected and flown to the former boss of the fashion giant and his British partner’s homes, or to hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St Barts, “for the purpose of attending events to engage in commercial sex”, Breon Peace, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York said.
At a news conference in New York, Mr Peace said Jeffries used his “power, his wealth and his influence, to traffic men for his own sexual pleasure and that of his romantic partner, Matthew Smith”.
It comes after several sexual misconduct allegations – including a lawsuit filed in New York last year accusing Abercrombie of allowing Jeffries to run a sex trafficking organisation during his 22-year tenure.
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Jeffries’ attorney, Brian Bieber, said in an email to the Associated Press 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”.
Information on attorneys for the other defendants wasn’t immediately available.
Jeffries left Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014.
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.
