Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was arrested Tuesday — along with his partner Matt Smith and a third man, Jim Jacobson — and charged with 16 counts in the latest development of a sprawling criminal sex trafficking investigation led by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

According to ABC News, the three men are accused of running an international sex trafficking and prostitution business that recruited young men to party in the US and abroad, using their combined vast wealth for an illegal enterprise “aimed at fulfilling their sexual desires and ensured that their international sex trafficking and prostitution activities were kept secret,” the indictment said.

“We will respond in detail to the allegations after the indictment is unsealed, and as appropriate, but intend to do so in the courthouse – not in the media,” said Brian Bieber, attorney for Jeffries, and Joe Nascimento, attorney from Smith. told ABC News in identical statements.

Jeffries, who led A&F from 1992 to 2014, was the subject of the 2022 Netflix documentary, “White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” which detailed allegations against the CEO over the years were voiced, including encouraging a culture of racial discrimination and ranking employees based on their appearance.

“All that mattered was that the employees you took pictures of and sent back to headquarters were hot,” says journalist Moe Tkacik, who describes the whole process as an “illegal feeling,” says journalist Moe Tkacik in the documentary.

As The New York Times stated in their coverage of Tuesday’s arrest, the three defendants face a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison. A conviction on interstate prostitution charges can result in a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.