The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has been accused of luring men to events then exploiting and sexually abusing them. The BBC completed a two-year investigation that involved interviewing 12 men who were involved with Mike Jeffries' events.
The events happened between the years of 2009 and 2015. Mike Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith allegedly used a middleman to lure men to these events, sometimes through allegedly being deceitful about what the events entailed.
The BBC report requests an investigation to see if Jeffries and Smith could be charged with sex trafficking in the US. The men described being told to have sex with each other at events, or to have sex with Jeffries and Smith. One of the men added that he "didn't feel safe to say 'no' or 'I don't feel comfortable with this.'"
The events were allegedly highly organized, with James Jacobson acting as a "middleman." Jacobson allegedly had men go through a sexual "audition process" before introducing the men to Jeffries. Staff members wearing A&F uniforms allegedly watched the men at events and gave them money. Jacobson would pay other "recruiters" to find men to attend the events, BBC reported.
One man, Barrett Pall, was recruited by a model and said he felt obligated to attend one of Jeffries' events. Although the model told him "you don't have to do anything you don't want to do," he didn't feel that way once he arrived. "How was I going to leave? I didn't have a car. I had a chaperone sitting and watching me," he said. He described several sexual acts that he felt pressured to take part in at the event. "This experience, I think it broke me. I think that this stole any ounce of innocence that I had left. It mentally messed me up. But with the language I now have today, I can sit here and tell you that I was taken advantage of," Pall said.
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Another man, who gave his name only as Alex, said Jeffries "took advantage of people in a very vulnerable point in their life, especially when they're around these big cities, coming from small America." At the time that he was recruited as a dancer for an event, he was in debt and needed money to support his family.
Later, he says he woke up with a condom inside him. "When I put things together, I believe there is a very good possibility I was drugged and raped. I'll probably never, never know for sure the answer of what happened," he told BBC.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, the National Sexual Assault Hotline provides confidential 24/7 support. Call 800-656-HOPE (4673) or chat online at RAINN.
