Anybody surprised the Abercrombie & Fitch CEO got busted for sex trafficking?
In today's "unexpected" news, the chief executive officer of youth clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch was arrested for sex trafficking.
Surprise, surprise.
According to ABC News:
Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries and two others were arrested Tuesday as part of a criminal sex trafficking investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
Jeffries, his partner Matt Smith and a third man, Jim Jacobson, are accused of operating an international sex trafficking and prostitution business that recruited young men for parties in the U.S. and abroad, according to an indictment.
The former retail executive and Smith relied on their vast financial resources, Jeffries' power as the CEO of Abercrombie, and numerous people, including Jacobson and a network of employees, contractors and security professionals, to run a business "that was dedicated to fulfilling their sexual desires and ensuring that their international sex trafficking and prostitution business was kept secret," the indictment alleges.
Federal prosecutors said the trio paid dozens of men to travel around the world to engage in sex acts. The indictment mentions 15 alleged victims, identified as John Does #1-15. Jeffries allegedly recruited, hired and paid a slate of household staff to "facilitate and supervise the Sex Events."
Jacobson traveled throughout the United States and internationally to recruit and interview men for the so-called sex events. During "tryouts" of potential candidates, Jacobson required that the candidates first engage in sex acts with him, according to prosecutors.
Anyone who's taken a gander at his company's marketing materials or the shops themselves wouldn't be surprised.
I walked into one those stores once in Los Angeles, to buy a niece a gift she wanted, and I was struck by how images were all over of hypersexualized and often naked young men -- on posters, on shopping bags, everywhere, raising questions as to what they were selling if their models weren't wearing anything.
I grimmaced in horror at what marketing to young people was becoming, given that this was a popular teen brand for clothing. And I rued how far that label had fallen. In the 1980s, it had been a prime preppy brand in the days of the Preppy Handbook, where one could buy high quality classic clothing and accessories, mostly for men, but a little bit for women, too. Somewhere in the 1990s, after a bankruptcy, it became child-sex promotion outfit even as it claimed to be a teen outfitter. I found it pervy, creepy. It's sad that no one could say anything, or else be branded a hopeless prude. But if something had been said, maybe the crimes would not have gone on for 20 or 30 years.
Now we learn that any or all of the teenagers featured on that packaging and in those posters could have been a victim of sex trafficking, wanting to be supermodels or movie stars, getting abused in the process, their bodies exploited, looking great on packaging, though, same as young Justin Bieber was, reportedly by the rap star known as Diddy.
Turns out this guy has a connection to Jeffrey Epstein, in that the company had been sold to Epstein's financier Les Wexner in 1988, and then passed on to him in 1992 as CEO.
They all seem to know each other, don't they? Now it appears the lawmen are after him. But it was written all over what he made of that company from the start. If he's tried and found guilty, he should be forced to pay back all his ill gotten gains for this desecration of social morals, too. And given that so many of these characters are turning up perverts in this industry (think of Dov Charney of American Apparel, chased out as a sex harasser -- his company featured pervy ads, too), the public should speak up about obviously corrupted morals seen in marketing to teens.
Image: Twitter screen shot