Michael Jeffries Is Accused of Luring Men Into Sex Events That Rival Diddy's Freak Offs

Content Warning: This article mentions sex trafficking and sexual abuse.

2024 has undoubtedly been the year that wealthy businessmen will remember for many years to come. One month after Sean “Diddy” Combs’s September 2024 arrest for sex trafficking, another CEO, Michael Jeffries, was arrested on similar charges.

On the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 22, Jeffries, who served as Abercrombie & Fitch's CEO from 1992 until 2014, was arrested for sex trafficking during his tenure with the teen retail brand.

His indictment accuses him of allegedly trafficking dozens of male models to fly out to extravagant “Sex Events” in the U.S. and other countries.

Jeffries’s parties allegedly rivaled Diddy’s Freak-Offs, which have been a significant topic in his ongoing sexual assault cases. Here’s what to know about the illicit parties.

On Oct. 22, Jeffries’s indictment was obtained by The Daily Beast. The legal doc named Jeffries, his romantic partner Matt Smith, and another man named Jim Jacobson as the ring leaders of the CEO’s sex events. According to the indictment, between December 2008 and March 2015, Jeffries and Smith had sex with multiple aspiring models after Jacobson traveled “throughout the United States and internationally” to recruit the men for the couple.

The indictment also claimed that Jeffries, Smith, and Jacobson would lure aspiring models with “modeling opportunities that did not exist” and do so only after they gave them “itineraries for the Sex Events that did not refer to commercial sex.”

During the parties, the trio would allegedly require the models to alter their looks for Jeffries and Smith and “wear costumes” and use sex toys to prepare for particular sexual acts.” Jeffries would reportedly refer to the sex events as the models’ “tryouts.”

The lawsuit further delves into alleged instances during the parties where the models were allegedly injected with a “prescription-grade erection-inducing substance to cause the men to engage in sex acts in which they were otherwise physically incapable or unwilling.”

The men, many of whom identified as heterosexual men, were also forced to consume copious amounts of alcohol, viagra, and muscle relaxants nicknamed “poppers.” The sex parties allegedly happened in New York City but also at locations in England, France, Italy, Morocco, and Saint Barthelemy.

Jeffries’s indictment further alleged that he often kept his Sex Events going for as long as Combs allegedly did during his Freak Off parties. According to the doc, Jeffries, Smith, and Jacobson’s parties lasted until “Jeffries and Smith decided they were over.” Additionally, the partners wouldn’t allow the alleged victims to use their phones and allegedly made them sign “strict” non-disclosure agreements.

During their Oct. 22 indictment, a grand jury charged Jeffries, Jacobson, and Smith with 15 counts of interstate prostitution and one count of sex trafficking. If convicted, he could spend a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, according to a spokesperson for Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where the three men were arrested.

Peace spoke about the case during a press conference on Tuesday and called Jeffries’s arrest an example of what could happen when you “exploit and coerce others” by using your access to a “casting couch,” as Jeffries allegedly did.

Before his arrest, Jeffries served as Abercrombie and Fitch’s CEO from 1992 until 2014. Prosecutors have stated that similar to Combs’s case, Jeffries’s investigation was brought on by civil lawsuits against him and Abercrombie & Fitch in 2023.