Intercourse accusers of ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries have revealed particulars about his alleged sick “fantasy land” world, claiming he attacked them in properties staged to appear like A&F storefronts.
A person recognized solely as Luke advised the BBC final month that he was 20 when Jeffries, then in his 70s, sexually assaulted him in 2011 in a presidential resort suite — which was made to look “like a film set of an Abercrombie retailer.”
Luke mentioned the room on the resort in Madrid, Spain, had temper lighting, pictures hanging on the wall of shirtless males flaunting their abs — and a bunch of fellows standing round dressed within the iconic preppy A&F look folding garments on a desk as in the event that they have been working inside one of many shops.
He mentioned he was advised by the assistants to faux to be one of many shirtless greeters at a retailer and that he’d have to impress “two essential company.”
Jeffries and his “romantic companion’’ Matthew Smith — each of whom have been arrested on sex-trafficking raps Tuesday together with the pair’s alleged recruiter — then got here into the room and began groping and kissing him, Luke alleged.
“I used to be attempting to keep away from the entire scenario as a lot as I might, however Michael was very aggressive,” Luke advised the outlet.
Jeffries then allegedly carried out oral intercourse on him whereas Luke mentioned no “repeatedly.”
Jeffries, now 80, his British boyfriend Smith, 61, and “recruiter” James Jacobson, 71, are accused of preying on greater than 12 younger male aspiring fashions for their very own sexual pleasure in a trafficking and prostitution ring that they ran for practically 10 years.
Some accusers had their penises painfully iinjected with a substance they have been advised was liquid Viagra and compelled to bear “high-pressured enemas administered by inserting a hose into the anus” in the course of the sickos’ “intercourse occasions,” in line with courtroom paperwork.
Keith Milkie advised the BBC final month that he was sexually attacked by Jeffries beginning greater than a decade in the past, when he was a struggling 20-something mannequin and the clothes exec was then in his 70s.
“I used to be within the mattress placing on a faux smile, crying on the within,” Milkie mentioned.
Milkie mentioned he was paid $24,000 at one level to take a seven-night cruise with Jeffries on the Queen Mary II cruise ship — which included the boozed-up CEO placing a “bleeding finger’’ inside him.
Jeffries additionally made him have intercourse with one other man regardless of Milkie’s protests, which the clothes bigwig ridiculed him over, the youthful man mentioned.
“Right here I’m in the midst of the ocean having this individual 4 instances my age in that place of energy and affect belittle me to dying and actually name me nugatory … just because I mentioned no to one thing,” Milkie alleged.
“The personification of Mike Jeffries is Abercrombie. He had the hair plugs, the cosmetic surgery, he wore the garments, he wore the flip-flops. I imply, you discuss energy,’’ Melkie advised the outlet of the previous CEO — identified for calling folks “Dude.”
“He projected his picture on the whole nation. His locations the place he lived have been actually an Abercrombie retailer,’’ Milkie mentioned.
“It was like fantasy land.’’Milkie wrote on Instagram on Tuesday, “What an extremely fascinating morning with the breaking information of Abercrombie and Fitch.
“In talking with @rianna_croxford for the BBC over this previous 12 months I wasn’t positive what would come of our conversations,’’ he wrote, referring to the expose that kicked off the FBI probe resulting in Tuesday’s arrests.
“I merely felt a launch and reduction in lastly telling part of my story and having somebody pay attention. A silence was damaged,’’ Milkie mentioned. “To dwell in a state of wanting to precise, not realizing how or the place, and never permitting it in both case for concern, is a hell.
“All I can say is this text was a small proportion of what wants telling so far as the trade general.”
However one other man, Diego Guillen, advised the outlet he believes that he and the opposite males who attended the so-called “intercourse occasions” on the similar time have been “beneath no obligation, beneath zero stress” and have been paid “fairly effectively” for his or her time.
“Michael and Matthew are high-profile homosexual males and preferred having intercourse with younger, good-looking males,” Guillen mentioned. “And being older, they knew that the actual solution to get this completed was to be beneficiant. “However with full consent and ensuring that the [men] needed it and preferred it. And that’s it.”
Jeffries has been accused of operating a “well-oiled machine” that lured males for abuse by way of “recruiters” — paid as a lot as $1,000 for referrals. The alleged victims have been requested to attend intercourse events at Jeffries posh properties and luxurious motels world wide — together with in London, Paris and Marrakech.
The boys — who believed attending the occasions would increase their modeling careers — can be compelled to signal non-disclosure agreements promising to not reveal something in regards to the sordid soirees or they might face authorized motion. And so they allegedly by no means obtained copies of the NDAs.
They might even be assigned a private “groomer” to shave their physique hair earlier than being pressured into performing intercourse acts. And the boys have been allegedly paid for his or her participation.
David Bradberry, who has a 2023 lawsuit pending in Manhattan federal courtroom towards Jeffries and Smith, claimed middle-man Jacobson launched him to Jeffries in 2010 when he was 23.
“Jim made it clear to me that except I let him carry out oral intercourse on me, that I’d not be assembly with A&F or Mike Jeffries,” Bradberry advised the BBC final 12 months.
“I used to be paralyzed. It was like he was promoting fame. And the worth was compliance,” he mentioned, noting that Jacobson led him to consider “that is the place all people will get their begin.”
Then Bradberry attended a daytime get together at Jeffries’ $29 million Hamptons dwelling the place he advised Jeffries and Smith about desirous to turn into a mannequin for A&F. Then Jeffries took “poppers” — or drug inhalants — earlier than finally having intercourse with Bradberry, the alleged.
Bradberry mentioned he “didn’t really feel protected to say ‘no’ or ‘I don’t really feel comfy with this’” due to the sense like he was remoted in the midst of nowhere.
One other alleged sufferer Barrett Pall advised the BBC when he was 22 in 2011 he entered Jeffries and Smith’s world and felt he couldn’t rebuff their sexual advances as a result of a recruiter had been serving to out a strapped Pall financially.
“The additional you go, the higher,” Pall recalled the recruiter telling him.
Pall mentioned that Jeffries kissed and groped him whereas a chaperone watched in an encounter that “broke me.”
On Tuesday, Jeffries’ lawyer Brian Bieber mentioned: “We’ll reply intimately to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed, and when acceptable, however plan to take action within the courthouse – not the media.”
-Extra reporting by Reuven Fenton
Supply hyperlink