(Central Islip) The British companion of the former head of the American ready-to-wear brand Abercrombie & Fitch pleaded not guilty Tuesday to sex trafficking and pimping in a federal court in New York State and was released on bail for ten million dollars.
Posted at 3:59 p.m.
After his resounding arrest at the end of October in Florida in the company of former CEO Michael Jeffries, Matthew Smith was placed in pre-trial detention in New York. He appeared Tuesday in court in Central Islip, on Long Island east of the New York megalopolis.
This British national pleaded “not guilty to the charges of sex trafficking and trafficking in prostitution” and was “released on bail for ten million dollars” guaranteed by Mike Jeffries and his family, according to a press release from the federal prosecutor of Eastern New York jurisdiction.
An AFP photographer saw Mr. Smith leaving the Central Islip courthouse with what appeared to be a large electronic GPS monitoring bracelet strapped to his ankle.
The next procedural hearing, before a possible trial for MM. Jeffries and Smith and a third defendant, James Jacobson, will take place on December 10.
Mr. Jeffries was released at the end of October on also ten million dollars in bail.
CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 to 2014, the octogenarian is accused of having set up and then maintained a prostitution network, recruiting men to have sex with him and his companion Smith.
The alleged facts relate to a period from 2008 to 2015.
The prosecution described a “couch promotion” scheme in which Mr Jacobson “recruited” and “tested” young men around the world before delivering them to the Jeffries-Smith couple.
The victims were taken to the two men’s homes in New York and to hotels in England, France, Italy or Morocco to have sexual relations.
Mike Jeffries faces life imprisonment.
The alleged “recruiter,” Jacobson, also pleaded not guilty in October and was released on $500,000 bail.
Mike Jeffries took the reins of Abercrombie in 1992, then in great difficulty. He reinvented its image to make it one of the favorite destinations for young buyers at the turn of the 2000s.
But the brand lost its luster in the early 2010s, partly weakened by controversial statements from its boss, who notably did not want to see “fat” people wearing the brand’s clothes.
He was initially pushed to leave at the end of 2014.
