The former chief executive of clothing giant Abercrombie and Fitch has pleaded not guilty to trafficking male models for sex parties around the world, US prosecutors said Friday.

Mike Jeffries, 80, who was arrested Tuesday, was arraigned Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, where he denied the charges.

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Jeffries, whose lover Matthew Smith was also charged, was joined by his wife and son as he posted a $10 million bond using a New York home as collateral.

He will be placed under house arrest and electronic monitoring pending trial.

Jeffries, Smith and the pair’s fixer, James Jacobson, allegedly used a “casting couch” trick to groom aspiring male models to attend sex parties where the victims were high on alcohol and drugs.

Jeffries is also prohibited from contacting his co-defendants, witnesses or victims, court sources said.

The next hearing will be held on December 12 before Justice Nusrat Choudhury.

Jacobson also pleaded not guilty to the same charges.

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He will also await trial under house arrest after posting a half million dollar bond.

Smith has not yet been arraigned, but on Tuesday a federal judge in West Palm Beach, Florida, remanded him in custody, arguing he was a flight risk as a British passport holder.

Prosecutors allege that between December 2008 and March 2015, Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson used a combination of “force, fraud and coercion” to traffic men in an extensive prostitution enterprise.

Charging documents detail 15 unnamed victims, but prosecutors suggest the scale was likely much higher and have appealed for witnesses and victims to come forward.

The case stems from a 2023 BBC investigation, The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool, in which several men spoke of signing non-disclosure agreements for sexual encounters allegedly conducted by Jeffries.

Abercrombie and Fitch previously said it was “appalled and disgusted” by the allegations about Jeffries’ behavior and had “zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind”.

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