The former chief executive of the Abercrombie and Fitch clothing empire has been arrested and charged with the trafficking of male models for sex parties around the world, US prosecutors said Tuesday.
Ex-CEO Mike Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith and the pair’s fixer James Jacobson allegedly used a “casting couch” ploy to groom aspiring male models to attend sex parties at which victims were plied with alcohol and drugs.
They were taken to Jeffries’s and Smith’s homes, as well as venues as far afield as Britain, France, Italy and Morocco for the events, at which some of the men were given Viagra and muscle relaxants, prosecutors said.
“The indictment alleges on more than one occasion when men did not or could not consent, Jeffries and Smith violated the bodily integrity of these men by subjecting them or continuing to subject them to invasive sexual and violent contact,” US Attorney Breon Peace told a media briefing.
“They spent millions of dollars on a massive infrastructure to support this operation, and to maintain its secrecy,” he added.
The trio, who are also charged with interstate prostitution, used “force, fraud and coercion to traffic those men for their own sexual gratification,” Peace said.
