OPINION: Worldwide sex scandal brushes Fishers Island
Oct. 4—When the BBC this week broke its salacious story about Abercrombie & Fitch ex-CEO Michael Jeffries allegedly recruiting young men for choreographed sex events at luxurious hotels and mansions around the world, the news ricocheted very quickly around Fishers Island.
The story paints a very ugly picture of Jeffries and his male partner using their vast wealth to allegedly recruit vulnerable young men, dangling lucrative modeling careers, according to the BBC reporting, to get them to attend sex events in which muscled body guards oversaw predatory sexual encounters.
I'm a gay man, and the one-hour segment on the BBC's prestigious investigative reporting show "Panorama" made me cringe, with first-hand accounts by the victims that were chilling.
Abercrombie & Fitch responded by saying it was "appalled and disgusted" by the alleged behavior of its modern founder and said it was opening an investigation of its own. Jeffries reportedly retired in 2014 with a retirement package of about $25 million.
I got a little preview this story was coming when I was asked recently by the BBC to try to help track down Jeffries, who has an estate on Fishers Island, for comment before the story was aired.
I got permission from my editors to sign on as a freelancer with the BBC.
I can't say I was much help.
They envisioned a confrontation of sorts at Jeffries' island home, where I could knock on the door and deliver a letter explaining the allegations against him and ask for comment. I could presumably do some reporting on how that went.
All journalists want to give their reporting subjects a chance to comment, but evidently this part of investigative reporting is especially important in England under their libel laws. The BBC was very determined to find Jeffries and give him a chance to comment.
There were some big problems with the assignment.
First, the Jeffries estate is located on the east end of the island, and it wouldn't be easy for a reporter to get past the guard house at the entrance to those private roads. There can be no random door knocking there.
I also soon discovered that Jeffries' Fishers Island home seems to be used primarily by his wife and children. Islanders say they haven't seen him there for a very long time, not since his daughter's wedding in 2013, some said.
In the end, the BBC reported, they never did get comment from Jeffries or his partner.
Who knows where he might be hiding out. After the show aired, I doubt he will be welcome at many of his old haunts.
The BBC showed an oceanfront mansion in the Hamptons where some of the orgies were said to have occurred but suggested he no longer owns it.
The BBC said it was not sure how often the sex orgies were held, but they said they spoke to at least seven attendees and described similar events in the house in the Hamptons, in London and the south of France.
The young men quoted on camera said they were recruited by a middleman or "casting agent", who promised to introduce them to Jeffries with the potential for a lucrative modeling career for A&F to follow. They were told to go to A&F stores to collect gift cards to purchase A&F uniforms, jeans and leather sandals, and eventually flown and driven to the mansion or hotels.
They were made to sign nondisclosure agreements, they said, and some had to meet with "groomers' who intimately shaved them.
Once at the mansion, surrounded by uniformed staff, they said they felt intimidated into participating In the sexual encounters with other attendees and Jeffries and his partner.
One interviewee says he believes he was given a date rape drug and felt as if he had been raped when he woke up.
I suspect there will be a lot of eyeballs on the BBC show, "The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool" when it begins airing in the U.S. Friday, on BBC Select on Amazon, Roku and Apple TV.
I suspect, too, for a long time it will be cocktail chatter fodder in the drawing rooms beyond the pearly gates on the island's tony east end, where Jeffries will dominate conversations without even being there.
This is the opinion of David Collins
