Abercrombie & Fitch sued over ex-CEO’s alleged sex-trafficking of male models
Abercrombie & Fitch has been hit with a lawsuit filed by a former male model. The suit is seeking class-action status.
The lawsuit alleges that the retailer enabled the actions of its former CEO Michael Jeffries, who is accused of running a sex-trafficking ring for years that took advantage of young men hoping to become Abercrombie models. Jeffries, who served as CEO from 1992 to 2014 and built the brand into a retail teen powerhouse, is also listed as a defendant in the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York.
“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 suit reads.
It goes on to state: “Knowing that it would earn millions of dollars in exchange for facilitating Jeffries’s sex abuse and trafficking, Abercrombie chose profits over following the law. Specifically, Abercrombie chose participating in and facilitating the sex-trafficking conspiracy for many years to keep its sexually abusive CEO at the helm and to churn profits.”
When asked about the lawsuit, a spokesperson told Chain Store Age via email that the company does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a BBC report on its investigation which uncovered allegations that Jeffries and his partner exploited young adult men for sex at events the CEO hosted in his New York residences and luxury hotels around the world. The report went into detail on some of the parties.
Abercrombie told the BBC it was "appalled and disgusted" by Jeffries alleged behavior. It also said new leadership has transformed the company and it has "zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind".
According to the lawsuit filed in New York, Jefferies conceptualized the “oversexualization of young men to catapult the Abercrombie brand into success, and it remained the case when he used his role as CEO of Abercrombie to prey upon attractive young men who believed that Jeffries was going to hire them as an Abercrombie model — the pinnacle of the modeling industry for men during the relevant time period.”
The lawsuit alleges that Jeffries had modeling scouts scour the internet and elsewhere to identify attractive young men seeking to be the next face of Abercrombie. Often these prospective models became sex-trafficking victims, sent to New York and abroad and abused by Jeffries and other men, all under the guise that they were being recruited to become the next Abercrombie model, the lawsuit contends, the AP reported.
Jeffries, who is now 79 years old, resigned from Abercrombie in 2014 amid slowing sales as the brand began to fall out of fashion with its core teen audience.
