Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO charged with sex trafficking has dementia, lawyers say

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

A neuropsychologist diagnosed Jeffries after several evaluations, according to two lawsuits filed in New York court on Monday.

Brian H. Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, began to question the businessman’s attention span, competence and focus, the suit states.

“Michael Jeffries, who introduced himself, did not even come close to resembling a graduate who only nine years earlier was the CEO of a publicly traded company,” the document states.

Jeffries was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, in October on charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution. He was released on $10 million bail with a judge ordering that he be confined to house arrest with GPS monitoring and prohibiting him from traveling without proper authorization. He also had to surrender his passport.

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

The court filing says Bieber “questioned Mr. Jeffries’ competence to rationally assist — on an ongoing and consistent basis — attorneys with respect to the possible factual and legal defenses to the allegations he faced.”

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

A doctor concluded that testing “provided diagnostic impressions that Mr. Jeffries currently suffers from dementia with behavioral disturbances … late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (probably) … and Lewy body dementia,” the suit states.

A competency hearing is planned for June.

A federal indictment alleged that Jeffries, his romantic partner Matthew Smith and James Jacobson ran an “international sex trade and prostitution ring” from 2008 to 2015. The indictment described Jacobson as a recruiter.

Jeffries, no stranger to controversy, was the popular clothing brand’s boss 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. They allegedly “used coercive, fraudulent and deceptive tactics in recruiting, hiring, transporting, obtaining, maintaining, soliciting and paying the men to engage in commercial sex,” the indictment said.

The men who participated in the “events” believed it could help their careers or lead to modeling opportunities and “that not complying with requests for certain actions during the sex events could harm their careers,” it said.

Prosecutors said in a detention memo that the youngest of the alleged victims was 19 and that many of them were “financially vulnerable.” Some of the men had previously worked at Abercrombie stores or modeled for the company, according to prosecutors. During the events, the men had to hand over their wallets and cell phones and sign confidentiality agreements, prosecutors said.

Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson are also alleged to have recruited and paid some household staff to “facilitate and supervise the sex events.” The staff allegedly supplied Jeffries, Smith and the men who attended with muscle relaxants, alcohol, condoms, Viagra and lubricant, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said staff were ordered to inject some of the men “with a prescription erection-inducing drug intended to induce the men to engage in sexual acts where they were otherwise physically unable or unwilling.”

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

Prosecutors accused the defendants of hiring a “full-service security firm” to conduct background checks and intimidating 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 business. Jacobson allegedly had the victims participate in commercial sex acts with him during “tryouts” held before the sex events, Peace said.

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