(NewsNation) — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries had an extended historical past of problematic habits each out and in of the boardroom earlier than he was indicted on a number of intercourse trafficking prices Tuesday.
Jeffries, 80, who left Abercrombie in 2014, is finest recognized for his tenure with the retail model, which turned a sensation within the late Nineties and 2000s earlier than crashing beneath poor gross sales and a wave of controversies beneath the previous CEO.
The previous head, his accomplice Matthew Smith, 61, and their worker James Jacobson, 71, had been arrested Tuesday on prices of luring males into intercourse events, at instances beneath the guise of modeling jobs for Abercrombie.
The three are charged with intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution involving 15 unnamed accusers utilizing Jeffries’ standing, wealth and a non-public workers.
United States Lawyer for the Jap District of New York Breon Peace described the system as a “casting couch” mannequin the place males hoping to get featured in an Abercrombie advert had been then trafficked.
Jeffries’ legal professional, Brian Bieber, informed The Related Press that 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.”
Who’s Mike Jeffries?
Jeffries grew up in Los Angeles, the place his father owned a sequence of social gathering provide shops earlier than getting into retail within the Eighties, reported Salon.
He turned CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch in 1992 and instantly acquired to rebranding the corporate from a struggling retailer of searching attire to a vendor of must-have teen clothes that includes what many referred to as extremely sexualized photographs of younger fashions.
The model would characteristic seminude fashions carrying tight clothes in an effort to attraction to what Jeffries has referred to as “cool” children.
“We rent handsome individuals in our shops. As a result of handsome individuals entice different handsome individuals, and we need to market to chill, handsome individuals,” Jeffries said about the brand. “We do not market to anybody apart from that.”
His imaginative and prescient scored with teenagers who noticed the model as aspirational within the Nineties and early 2000s, resulting in a wave of Abercrombie shops opening throughout the globe.
By 2006, earnings had elevated for 52 straight quarters, with annual earnings topping $2 billion, NPR reported.
Jeffries earned about $25 million with a “stay bonus” of $6 million in 2004. Salon reported he had additionally catapulted himself into turning into one of many highest-paid CEOs of the time.
However the success fizzled out and gross sales slumped amid a slew of lawsuits and controversies surrounding the model and Jeffries by the mid-2000s, reported The Wall Avenue Journal.
In the course of the monetary disaster in 2007, Jeffries refused to decrease costs or provide reductions at Abercrombie shops regardless of dropping numbers.
Whereas gross sales regained round 2011, the model had misplaced relevance with teenagers who felt just like the model alienated lots of them with its exclusionary messaging and now had a slew of recent manufacturers to show to.
By the point Jeffries left in 2014, a hedge fund had pushed the corporate’s board to interchange him due to the corporate’s lagging efficiency. Jeffries left with a retirement bundle valued at round $25 million, reported the BBC.
Controversies and lawsuits
Jeffries attracted a slew of controversies as CEO of Abercrombie via a number of insensitive remarks about his preferrred buyer base.
He was not shy in saying that the clothes was not meant to be inclusive.
“We want to market to cool, good-looking people,” he informed Salon. “We don’t market to anyone other than that. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong, and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”
He added that corporations that market to everybody, together with “young, old, fat, skinny” individuals, “are totally vanilla.”
Jeffries additionally made feedback relating to how scantily clad teenagers within the firm’s adverts, together with one which was captioned “Group Intercourse,” had been wholesome, NPR reported.
“I think that what we represent sexually is healthy. It’s playful. It’s not dark. It’s not degrading,” he informed Salon.
His feedback garnered backlash from a number of teams, and his firm’s insurance policies had been the topic of numerous lawsuits.
In 2003, Black, Latino and Asian American staff filed a category motion lawsuit in opposition to the corporate, claiming that minority candidates had been discouraged from making use of or stored out of the general public eye in undesirable positions, reported NPR. The corporate denied wrongdoing and later settled for $40 million.
In 2023, a former mannequin for Abercrombie filed a civil go well with in opposition to the style retailer and Jeffries, alleging it allowed the previous CEO to run a intercourse trafficking group throughout his 22-year tenure.
“Jeffries was so important to the profitability of the brand that he was given complete autonomy to perform his role as CEO however he saw fit, including through the use of blatant international sex trafficking and abuse of prospective Abercrombie models,” the go well with filed by David Bradberry alleged.
On the time, an legal professional for Jeffries informed NPR that the previous CEO had no touch upon the accusations.
Who’re the opposite two individuals indicted with Jeffries?
Jeffries’ romantic accomplice, Matthew Smith, and their worker, James Jacobson, had been additionally implicated in Tuesday’s indictment.
In line with the indictment, Smith and Jacobsen had been staff of Jeffries’ company, the Jeffries Household Workplace, which was established to handle the previous CEO’s private earnings and property.
Little is understood about Smith, however he was the topic of alleged company misconduct by Jeffries after Abercrombie staff referred to as out the previous CEO for giving his accomplice an elevated function on the firm regardless of not being an worker, Buzzfeed reported in 2013.
Smith had been concerned in issues massive and small, together with serving as an enforcer for Jeffries’ inflexible “Workstation Standards,” and had been given entry to nonpublic paperwork for the corporate, the outlet reported.
Jeffries and Smith are accused of hiring Jacobson to behave as a recruiter to pick younger males hoping to construct a profession in modeling who would then be coerced or compelled to have interaction in intercourse acts at occasions run by Jeffries and Smith, in response to the indictment.
Jacobson can also be accused of assaulting among the males he recruited.
He was arrested in Wisconsin, whereas Jeffries and Smith had been arrested in West Palm Seashore, Florida.
Jeffries and Jacobson might be arraigned Friday on the federal courthouse in Central Islip, Lengthy Island, earlier than U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Steven L. Tiscione.
The Related Press contributed to this story.
