Michael Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, could face trial next year on federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges after Bureau of Prisons medical staff declared him mentally competent to stand for the proceeding.
In May, U.S. District Judge Nusrat Choudhury ordered the 81-year-old to be hospitalized, finding he was unable to understand the case against him, in which he’s charged with running a sex trafficking ring in the Hamptons along with his romantic partner, Matthew Smith, and a third defendant, James Jacobson.
But after treatment at Federal Medical Center Butner, Jeffries’ competency was restored, the facility’s acting warden Blake Lott said in a letter to the court made public Wednesday.
“Mr. Jeffries is now competent to stand trial,” Lott wrote, attaching a certificate of restoration of competency to stand trial.
Brian H. Bieber of the Florida-based firm GrayRobinson represents Jeffries and has argued that his client’s cognitive issues, stemming from Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and a traumatic brain injury, are progressive and cannot be cured.
At a hearing Thursday, Choudhury indicated she would hold a competency hearing next year, with both parties presenting expert testimony.
In the meantime, the judge set a trial date of Oct. 26, 2026, for all three defendants — with the caveat that Jeffries’ case will proceed only if he is deemed fit to stand trial.
The competency hearing, likely to be held in March, will be public; Choudhury said the level of medical discussion involved doesn’t outweigh the public’s right of access.
Bieber indicated he’s not inclined to challenge that. “I am not aware of a case law that seals the proceedings,” he said at Thursday’s hearing.
Jeffries ran Abercrombie & Fitch between 1992 and 2014. He and his co-defendants are accused of using a network of employees to recruit and force numerous men over seven years into an “international sex trafficking and prostitution business,” including by luring them to “sex events” without disclosing the full extent of sexual activity they would be required to participate in, while promising career opportunities.
Jacobson allegedly traveled in the U.S. and overseas to recruit and interview men to participate, usually requiring candidates to engage in sex acts with him during “tryouts.”
In addition to paying for dozens of men to travel to the Hamptons and New York City, Jeffries and Smith purportedly held events at hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and Saint Barthélémy.
According to the indictment, the couple injected some men with prescription-grade erection medication and forced victims to have nonconsensual sex. Many of the victims were aspiring models, prosecutors say, and some previously worked at Abercrombie stores or modeled for the company.
Jeffries, who was freed on a $10 million bond before his hospitalization, called into Thursday’s remote hearing from a conference room in his attorney’s office in West Palm Beach.
