Mike Jeffries, who turned Abercrombie & Fitch into a clothing company, was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, in a prostitution and sex trafficking case. He was seen here in 2012.

Bertrand Guay/AFP

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Bertrand Guay/AFP

Mike Jeffries, who ran Abercrombie & Fitch Co. for more than 20 years, is under arrest as part of a federal investigation into a sex trafficking and interstate prostitution case. His arrest comes a year after explosive allegations emerged in which eight men accused Jeffries and his inner circle of sexually exploiting them at lavish parties around the world.

The case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who will hold a press conference at noon ET along with the FBI and the New York Police Department's Special Victims Unit.

Jeffries, who abruptly resigned from Abercrombie a decade ago, was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he will make his first court appearance on Tuesday. He is later taken to New York for arraignment.

Also arrested in the case: Matthew Smith, Jeffries' long-time partner, who allegedly attended the parties with Jeffries; and James Jacobson, who allegedly recruited victims and acted as a middleman in organizing sex events.

Several of the men who made allegations against Jeffries were male models, NPR reported last October. They described a dynamic in which money and the opportunity to get a legitimate job were used as leverage to get them to engage in sexual acts at events and at Jeffries' then-home in the Hamptons.

“I think this experience has broken me,” one man told the BBC, which first reported the allegations. “I think it took away every bit of innocence I had left. It messed me up mentally. But with the language I have today, I can sit here and tell you that I was taken advantage of.”

During his long tenure at A&F, Jeffries took the clothing brand to new heights. But he was also at the center of several controversies. In 2003, black, Latino and Asian American employees filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of leaving them out (the lawsuit was later settled). There were also allegations that A&F Magazine's catalog had become a corporatized example of softcore porn.
Jeffries' sudden departure in 2014 came after a prolonged decline in sales at Abercrombie and a series of groundbreaking moves that failed to deliver for the company.