Data map: Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch in 2005.
Michael Locisano | Movie Magic | Getty Images
previous Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries Arrested and faced in Florida sex traffickingA spokesman for the federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, told CNBC on Tuesday that the charges were related.
Two of Jeffries’ associates, Matthew Smith of West Palm Beach, Fla., and James Jacobson of Wisconsin, also were charged in connection with the case, the spokesman said.
The criminal case comes a year after Abercrombie, Jeffries and Smith were indicted in Manhattan federal court for allegedly turning a blind eye to sexual misconduct by their former executive.
Jeffries was accused in that federal civil lawsuit of running a sex trafficking ring that exploited young people hoping to become models for the company.
Jeffries and Smith will make their first court appearances later Tuesday in federal court for the Southern District of Florida. Jacobson is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
The three men will be arraigned later in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, a spokesman said.
“We will respond in detail to these allegations in due course after the indictment is unsealed, but plan to do so in court rather than in the media,” Michael Jeffries’ attorney Brian Bieber told NBC News in a statement. Do this.
Abercrombie & Fitch declined CNBC’s request for comment.
The news came just hours before federal prosecutors in Brooklyn were set to hold a press conference to announce the arrests of a “former CEO of a major company” and two others in a “sex trafficking and interstate prostitution case.” .
The press conference is scheduled for 12 noon ET.
A previously filed civil lawsuit against Abercrombie said the company had resolved several “complaints related to inappropriate conduct by Jeffries or Smith, some of which related to sexual harassment or abuse.”
The amended indictment in the case, filed in September, states that a BBC investigation in 2023 found that “Jeffries and Smith sexually exploited what is believed to be more than 100 men at Abercrombie events they hosted around the world.” “
Brittany Henderson, an attorney at Edwards Henderson, the law firm representing the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said in a statement to CNBC, “For the aspiring male models who have been victimized, , today’s arrest is landmark.
“Their fight for justice does not end here,” Henderson said. “We look forward to holding Abercrombie and Fitch accountable for enabling this horrific act and ensuring it never happens again.”
Jeffries served as Abercrombie’s chief executive from 1992 to 2014. But Abercrombie allowed him to work extensively for the brand.”
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— CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge contributed reporting.
