Lawsuit Claims Abercrombie & Fitch Was Funding a Sex-Trafficking Operation

 

A lawsuit filed in New York has accused fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch of funding a sex trafficking operation.

The complaint claims that the company gave former CEO Mike Jeffries “unfettered access” to funds to support his “criminal enterprise.”

The BBC reports that the lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, accuses Jeffries and his British partner Matthew Smith of sex trafficking, sexual misconduct and rape.

The suit was brought on by David Bradberry, now 37, a former model, who spoke to the BBC for an investigation into Jeffries’ actions.

“Abercrombie cared about profiting and showed absolute loyalty to Jeffries, including a willingness to spend copious amounts of money on extravagant drug and sex parties, ignoring multiple red flags of criminality in Jeffries’s corporate account activity,” the complaint says.

The suit says that the company was the “financial lifeblood for a sex trafficking organization” run by Jeffries between at least 1992 and 2014, the time he was with Abercrombie.

“It alleges he used A&F’s corporate resources including a jet, transportation, and unlimited amounts of cash to facilitate a sex-trafficking venture, which enabled him to accumulate ‘new victims at an alarming rate’ and he also had access to aspiring models,” the BBC reports.

Jeffries has been accused of sexually abusing over 100 young men while promising them modeling jobs, according to a report from CNBC.

“Because of this lawsuit and the brave men that have come forward, Abercrombie will have to answer for its many unacceptable actions and inactions that have destroyed the lives of dozens of young men,” Brad Edwards, a civil lawyer who is now representing some of the alleged victims, told the BBC.

Employees of Abercrombie were aware of Jeffries actions, as a video of him “sniffing what was believed to be cocaine off a man’s penis,” allegedly circulated around the offices.

“While Abercrombie tried to prevent the video from being more widely disseminated, the company did nothing to discourage the behaviour captured in the video and in fact continued to financially reward Jeffries,” the lawsuit says.

Abercrombie employees were also required to “properly pack his sex toy bag for his business trips,” according to the lawsuit, and he used his corporate email account to arrange meetings to sexually abuse the young men.

“With Abercrombie’s complicity, Jeffries was free to sexually abuse dozens of men, paying a tremendous amount of cash in hush money, without the fear of detection by law enforcement,” the complaint claims.

Jeffries was “using the Abercrombie name… his power within the company, its clothing, its photographers, and its marketing materials in order to ensnare the young male victims into the sex-trafficking venture,” the lawsuit says.