Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries' sexual accusers reveal details about his allegedly sick “fantasyland” world disguised as an A&F storefront He claimed to have been attacked at his home.
A man identified only as Luke told the BBC last month He was 20 in 2011 when Jeffries, then in his 70s, sexually assaulted him in a suite at the presidential hotel — a suite built “like a movie set at Abercrombie.” It is said that
According to Luke, his hotel room in Madrid, Spain, has mood lighting, the walls are decorated with photos of shirtless men flaunting their abs, and he stands there wearing his iconic preppy-style A&F. A group of men were standing there as if they were folding clothes on a table. I was working inside a store.
He said his assistants asked him to pretend to be one of the shirtless greeters at the store and told him he needed to make a good impression on “two very important customers.”
Jeffries and his “romantic partner” Matthew Smith, both of whom were arrested on Tuesday along with two suspected recruiters on sex trafficking charges, then entered the room and confronted Jeffries. Luke claimed that he began groping and kissing her.
“I was trying to avoid this whole situation as much as possible, but Michael was very aggressive,” Luke told the outlet.
Jeffries then allegedly performed oral sex on Luke, despite her saying no “numerous times”.
Jeffries, now 80, her 61-year-old British boyfriend and 71-year-old “recruiter” James Jacobson ran a human trafficking and prostitution ring for nearly a decade, targeting more than a dozen young men and aspiring models. He is accused of exploiting a man for sexual pleasure. year.
According to court documents, some accusers were told they had a painful substance injected into their penises, which they were told was liquid Viagra, and forced to give them “high-pressure enemas with a hose inserted into their anuses” during “sex acts” on the patients. It is said that
Keith Milkie told the BBC last month that Jeffreys had sexually assaulted her over a decade. At the time, he was a struggling model in his 20s, and the apparel executive was in his 70s.
“I was lying on my bed with a fake smile on my face and crying inside,” Milky said.
Milky said he was once paid $24,000 to go on a seven-night cruise with Jeffries on the Queen Mary II cruise ship. This included a drunken CEO pushing a “bleeding finger” into his stomach.
The young man said Jeffries forced him to have sex with another man, despite Milky's protests, and that the clothing mogul mocked him.
“Here I am in the middle of the ocean, with people four times my age in positions of power and influence, despising me to death and literally calling me worthless…just because I Because he said no to something,” Milky claimed.
“Mike Jeffries' incarnation is Abercrombie. He had hair plugs, he had plastic surgery, he wore clothes, he wore flip-flops. I mean, you're talking about power,” Melky said. told the outlet the former CEO is known for calling people “dude.”
“He projected his image to the whole country. The place he lived was literally an Abercrombie store,” Milky said.
“It was like fantasyland,” Milky wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.
“As I've been speaking to @rianna_croxford on the BBC over the past year, I had no idea how our conversation would turn out,” he said, referring to the revelations that sparked the FBI investigation that led to Tuesday's arrest.
“I simply felt a sense of release and relief that I had finally told my part of the story and had someone listen. The silence had been broken,” Milky said. “It is hell to live in a state where you want to express something, but you don’t know where or how to express it, and in both cases, fear won’t allow you to do it.
“All I can say is that this article only scratches the surface of what the industry as a whole has to say.”
Jeffries was previously accused of running a “well-oiled machine” that lured men into abuse through “recruiters” who paid them as much as $1,000 in commissions. The alleged victims were asked to attend sex parties at Jefferies' luxury homes and luxury hotels around the world, including London, Paris and Marrakech.
The men, who believed that attending the event would boost their modeling careers, were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements promising not to reveal anything about the sordid soirée, or face legal consequences. will face action. And they allegedly never received a copy of the NDA.
They will also be assigned a personal “groomer” who will shave their body hair before forcing them to have sex. The men are said to have received payment for their participation.
David Bradbury, whose lawsuit against Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Smith is pending in Manhattan federal court in 2023, said that Mr. Jacobson, a broker, introduced him to Mr. Jeffries in 2010, when he was 23 years old. he claimed.
“Jim made it very clear that he wouldn't meet A&F or Mike Jeffries unless he performed oral sex on me,” Bradbury said. told the BBC last year.
“I was numb. It was like I was selling fame, and the price was compliance,” he said, adding that Jacobson believed “this is where everyone starts.” He pointed out that it had become.
Bradbury then attended a daytime party at Jeffries' $29 million home in the Hamptons, where he told Jeffries and Smith that he wanted to model for A&F. Jeffries then allegedly took a “popper,” or narcotic inhaler, and eventually had sex with Bradbury.
Bradbury said she felt isolated and isolated, so she “didn't feel safe saying 'no' or 'I'm uncomfortable with this.'”
Another alleged victim, Barrett Paul, entered Jeffries and Smith's world in 2011 at the age of 22, when the recruiter offered to help Paul financially when he was in trouble. He told the BBC that he felt unable to refuse sexual advances because of his sexual advances.
“The further you go, the better,” Paul recalled the recruiter telling him.
Paul said Jeffries kissed and groped her while an attendant looked on.
“Once the indictment is unsealed, we will respond in detail to the allegations as necessary, but we will do so in court and not in the media,” Jeffries' attorney Brian Beaver said Tuesday.
-Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton
