(Bloomberg) -- Former Abercrombie & Fitch chief executive officer Mike Jeffries was charged with federal sex-trafficking crimes, according to people familiar with the matter, after a career selling an image of barechested male beauty for the clothing retailer.
Jeffries is one of three defendants charged in a case that remains under seal, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the charges haven’t yet been made public. All three were arrested, one of the people said.
Brian Bieber, a lawyer for Jeffries, didn’t immediately return a message left with his secretary seeking comment on the case. A representative of Abercrombie declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Brooklyn, New York, US attorney’s office, which brought the case, also declined to comment.
Shares of Abercrombie were trading down 0.5% at 11:34 a.m. in New York, after dropping more than 2% earlier in the session.
The ‘Cool Kid’
Jeffries was hired in 1992 by Leslie Wexner, founder of the company’s former parent, Limited Brands (now L Brands), which also owned Victoria’s Secret. He used racy marketing to sell an aspirational image of the “cool kid,” one who plays rugby barechested and sports an “all-American” look.
Jeffries has been sued over allegations he forced models to take drugs and engage in sex acts with him and others in exchange for the chance to be featured in the company’s provocative fashion catalogs. One lawsuit against him and Abercrombie, in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that he used his position to recruit men and invite them to casting sessions at his homes in New York, the Hamptons and elsewhere.
According to the suit, filed by former Abercrombie model David Bradberry, the ex-CEO used his role “to prey upon attractive young men who believed that Jeffries was going to hire them as an Abercrombie model — the pinnacle of the modeling industry for men during the relevant time period.”
‘Financial Lifeblood’
Bradberry alleges that Abercrombie “knew that it was providing the financial lifeblood for a sex-trafficking organization led by its CEO from at least 1992 through 2014,” and claims there could be more than 100 victims.
Lawyers for Jeffries and Abercrombie defended themselves in a filing this month seeking the suit’s dismissal.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer for Bradberry who also represents victims of Jeffrey Epstein, said the criminal charges have brought his client “an overwhelming sense of validation.” He said “it took a tremendous amount of courage for each of these men to come forward and speak out.”
New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie, once known for its perfumed stores and shirtless models, has made a comeback among Gen Z and millennial adults. It reinvented its brand by shunning the exclusionary preppy stereotypes, embracing more inclusive sizing and expanding its denim offerings. Jeffries left the company in 2014 after the Abercrombie and Hollister clothing lines lost their cachet with teenage shoppers.
--With assistance from Julia Fanzeres.
(Adds further context and lawsuit in second section as well as details of suit and plaintiff’s lawyer’s comment in third.)
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