Former CEO of major Columbus-based company arrest on federal sex trafficking charges

The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Michael Jefferies, was arrested on Oct. 22 on federal charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

Jefferies, who served as Ambercrombie CEO from 1992-2014, was arrested alongside Matthew Smith and James Jacobson. According to a United States Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, the three individuals “used a combination of force, fraud and coercion” to traffic men and operate what was dubbed a “prostitution enterprise.”

The DOJ alleges the crimes occurred between December 2008 and March 2015.

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Allegedly, Jefferies, Jacobson and Smith paid for dozens of men to travel across the country and internationally throughout the over six-year period. The 16-page indictment claimed that Jacobson engaged in “commercial sex acts” with many of the individuals who were seen as trafficking candidates.

The DOJ release also noted that some men were allegedly victims of “invasive” and “violent” sexual contact, and Jeffries allegedly “directed others to inject, or personally injected, men with an erection-inducing substance for the purpose of causing the men to engage in sex acts the men were incapable or unwilling to engage in.”

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