The former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO accused of sex trafficking suffers from dementia, lawyers say

Mike Jeffries, the former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO who was charged with sex trafficking, suffers from dementia and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, his legal team said in newly filed court documents.

A neuropsychologist diagnosed Jeffries after several examinations, according to two documents filed in a New York court on Monday.

Brian H. Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, began questioning the businessman’s attentiveness, competence and concentration, the filing said.

“The Michael Jeffries who introduced himself did not remotely resemble a master’s graduate who had been CEO of a publicly traded company just nine years earlier,” the document says.

Jeffries was arrested in October in West Palm Beach, Florida, on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges. He was released on $10 million bail. A judge ordered him held in home confinement with GPS monitoring and banned him from traveling without proper authorization. He also had to hand over his passport.

Jeffries pleaded not guilty to one count of sex trafficking and 15 counts of interstate prostitution.

The court filing states that Bieber “questioned Mr. Jeffries’ competency to advise rationally – on a sustained and consistent basis – in connection with the potential factual and legal defense of the allegations he faced.” help.”

Bieber advised Jeffries, 80, to undergo a neuropsychological evaluation.

A doctor concluded that the tests “provided diagnostic conclusions that Mr. Jeffries currently suffers from dementia with behavioral disturbances… late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (probable)… and Lewy body dementia,” the filing said.

A competency hearing is scheduled for June.

A federal indictment alleged that Jeffries, his romantic partner Matthew Smith and James Jacobson operated an “international sex trafficking and prostitution business” from 2008 to 2015. In the indictment, Jacobson was described as a recruiter.

Jeffries, no stranger to controversy, was the head of the popular clothing brand from 1992 to 2014.

According to the indictment, the trio organized “sex events” for Jeffries, Smith and “others” in Italy, England, New York City, St. Barts, Morocco, the Hamptons and France. The indictment says they “used coercive, deceptive and fraudulent tactics in connection with recruiting, hiring, promoting, obtaining, entertaining, promoting and paying the men for commercial sex.”

The men who attended the “events” believed it could help their careers or lead to modeling opportunities, and “that failure to comply with requests to perform certain acts during the sex events could harm their careers,” it said.

Prosecutors said in an arrest memo that the youngest of the alleged victims was 19 and that many of them were “financially vulnerable.” According to prosecutors, some of the men had previously worked at Abercrombie stores or modeled for the company. During the events, the men were required to hand over their wallets and cellphones and sign nondisclosure agreements, prosecutors said.

Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson also allegedly recruited and paid some domestic workers to “facilitate and monitor the sexual events.” According to the indictment, the staff allegedly provided Jeffries, Smith and the men present with muscle relaxants, alcohol, condoms, Viagra and lubricants.

Prosecutors said staff were instructed to inject some men “with a prescription erection-inducing substance to cause the men to engage in sexual acts that they would otherwise be physically unable or unwilling to perform.”

The men who were present were paid either by Jacobson or the staff, the indictment says. Prosecutors alleged that some men received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in cash.

Prosecutors accused the defendants of hiring a “full-service security company” to conduct background checks and intimidate any alleged victims who threatened to expose or sue them.

At a news conference in October, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said Jeffries and Smith spent millions on the alleged sex trafficking enterprise. Jacobson allegedly had the victims engage in commercial sex acts during “trial sessions” that took place before the sex events, Peace said.

Peace said his office became aware of the allegations through media reports. In 2023, the BBC published an article about Abercrombie & Fitch launching an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Jeffries.