Abercrombie & Fitch: How my investigation led to sex trafficking charges against ex-boss

When I think back to how my own investigation began, in January 2021, I never imagined it would lead to this moment.

During the pandemic, I was researching the fashion industry when I stumbled across a cryptic Instagram comment written by a former model named Barrett Pall.

He was part of a group discussing how they felt abuse against male models was being ignored. “We’ve seen it happen with #MeToo, how about #UsToo?” one wrote.

We soon got on the phone. After an hour of talking, he said he felt he could trust with me a secret he’d never really shared before.

“It’s probably like the darkest experience I’ve ever dealt with,” he told me. “They had someone come and shave me, like my whole body, because that’s how they like the boys.”

In 2011, then aged 22, Barrett said he’d been referred by an older model, who was a close friend, to meet a mysterious middleman he described as having a missing nose covered with a snakeskin patch.

He said this man – who I later identified through phone and property records as James Jacobson – had made him perform a sex act as a “tryout” before sending him to Mike Jeffries, then CEO and chairman of Abercrombie & Fitch, and his British partner.

Barrett claimed that, for years, the duo had been throwing elaborate sex events at their palatial home in the Hamptons. He said the one he had attended was facilitated by chaperones in Abercrombie polos and flip-flops, carrying silver platters of alcohol, poppers and lube.