Former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries leaves federal court docket after being indicted on expenses of trafficking male fashions for intercourse events around the globe, in Central Islip, New York on October 25, 2024.
Adam Grey | AFP | Getty Pictures
ex Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries and his affiliate pleaded not responsible Friday to federal legal expenses that he sexually exploited dozens of males, a lot of whom sought to be fashions for the clothes model.
Jeffries, 80, and James Jacobson, 71, appeared in U.S. District Courtroom in Lengthy Island, New York, three days after they had been arrested on intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution expenses.
The graphic 16-count indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses Jeffries and his romantic associate, Matthew Smith, 61, of working a global intercourse trafficking operation for greater than six years, most of which overlapped with Jeffries’ tenure as CEO of Abercrombie.
Jacobson allegedly labored as a recruiter for “Intercourse Occasions” and allegedly required potential candidates to take part in “trials” with him.
The defendants allegedly used “coercive, fraudulent and misleading” recruitment ways, together with by main males, “to consider that attending the Intercourse Occasions may result in modeling alternatives with Abercrombie or in any other case profit their careers.” , the indictment says.
If convicted, Jeffries and Jacobson face a most sentence of life in jail on the intercourse trafficking cost alone and a compulsory minimal of 15 years behind bars. Additionally they may resist 20 years behind bars if convicted of all 15 counts of interstate prostitution.
“At the moment’s listening to was procedural in nature, bail was set to make sure Michael’s look in court docket and naturally we pleaded not responsible,” Brian Bieber, Jeffries’ lawyer, advised CNBC in a cellphone name after the arraignment.
Smith was additionally arrested Tuesday and faces the identical expenses. He and Jeffries had been arrested in Florida, whereas Jacobson was arrested in Wisconsin, the place he lives.
A federal Justice of the Peace decide launched Jeffries on $10 million bail, plus home arrest and placement monitoring situations, at his first court docket look in West Palm Seaside on Tuesday afternoon.
Smith was ordered to stay in custody pending his arraignment at a later date as a result of, as a UK citizen, he poses a larger flight danger.
Jacobson was launched on $500,000 bail after showing in federal court docket in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday afternoon. He’s additionally confined to accommodate arrest with digital monitoring.
