How former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, now charged with sex trafficking, nearly ran the company into ruin

Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday on charges of sex trafficking and using his perch on a clothing store to coerce men into sex for a chance to become models for the brand.

According to the indictment, Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith and their employee James Jacobson allegedly ran an international sex trafficking and prostitution ring from 2008 to 2015, a period that largely overlapped with the period in which Jeffries he was general director from 1992 to 2014.

Jeffries was fired from the company nearly a decade ago, but the latest allegations are a reminder of the sex scandals that plagued his career and the leadership style that nearly sank Abercrombie & Fitch.

The history of Abercrombie dates back to 1892, when the company specialized in clothing and bags for travelers and outdoor enthusiasts. But when Jeffries took the helm in 1992, he began transforming Abercrombie into the leading teen retailer of the ’90s and early ’90s, rebranding it with logo-emblazoned clothing and a hypersexual preppy ethos. The company published catalogs that some critics said at the time resembled soft-core, and employed athletic, half-naked young men at store entrances. Jeffries also had great success with the launch of surf-adjacent brand Hollister in 2000.

Eventually, some of Jeffries’ disturbing behavior came to light. In early 2010, news reports about his abuses included questionable use of company funds for travel, his spouse’s large role in running the company, a manual containing detailed instructions on how corporate jet staff should address him, and how those employees should address dress.

As a leader, Jeffries also displayed autocratic tendencies and contempt for people he considered inferior: he infamously stated that Abercrombie & Fitch was only for “cool” people. This top-down management approach worked well… until it didn’t.

By 2010, its “my way or the highway” approach meant that the company was missing important cultural changes and was falling behind its consumers, who were increasingly less interested in the company’s logo and an air of exclusivity. By the end of 2014, Jeffries was out of the running after 11 straight quarters of declining same-store sales and immeasurable brand damage.

While Abercrombie tried to reorganize after Jeffries’ departure, the company was led for more than two years by a “chairman’s office” made up of top executives, including Fran Horowitz, who became the company’s CEO in 2017. Horowitz was tasked with leading a shocked and demoralized staff. She also undertook the ambitious task of more clearly defining the Abercrombie and Hollister brands, which had become almost interchangeable by the end of Jeffries’ reign.

Horowitz built a massive e-commerce business that now accounts for 50% of the company’s sales. And by 2022, after years of retail purgatory, Abercrombie & Fitch’s revenues had finally rebounded to 2014 levels. Its stock has increased sixfold over the past decade, and annual revenue last year was $5 billion.

In the last quarter, sales increased by 21%. Abercrombie & Fitch’s comeback story is undeniable, and it’s still going strong – no, thanks to all the drama and problems Jeffries caused.

This story was originally published on Fortune.com