Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jefferies and two other men have been arrested on interstate sex trafficking and prostitution charges, a spokesman for federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Details of the criminal charges were not immediately available. The charges come after years of sexual misconduct allegations, made in civil lawsuits and the media, by young men who said Jeffries lured them with promises of modeling work and then pressured them to perform sex acts.
Jeffries’ attorney, Brian Pepper, said via email that he “will respond in detail to the accusations after the indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but he intends to do so in the courtroom — not the media.”
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Information about the lawyers for the other defendants was not immediately available.
Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Pace, FBI and police officials are scheduled to hold a news conference later Tuesday.
Jefferies left New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie & Fitch in 2014.
One civil lawsuit filed in New York last year accused Abercrombie of allowing Jeffries to run a sex trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure. She said Jefferies had models search the Internet for victims, and that some of the potential models became victims of sex trafficking.
Abercrombie said last year that it had appointed an external law firm to conduct an independent investigation after the BBC broadcast a report on similar allegations.
The BBC investigation included dozens of men who described being present at events involving sexual acts that they said were organized by Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith, often at his home in New York and hotels in London, Paris and elsewhere.
When the civil lawsuit was filed in New York last year, Bieber declined to comment on the allegations.
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If you or someone you know is being abused or involved in an abusive situation, please visit Canadian Resource Center for Victims of Crime To help. They can also be reached free of charge at 1-877-232-2610.
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