The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) has dementia and late-onset Alzheimer's disease, his legal team said in a court document filed in New York.
Attorneys for Mike Jeffries have requested a hearing to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
The 80-year-old was arrested along with his partner in October and charged with running an international sex trafficking and prostitution ring. Both men pleaded not guilty.
For June next year, the so-called competency hearing.
Mr Jeffries, who ran US clothing brand A&F for two decades, is accused of running a sex and prostitution trade from at least 2008-15.
US prosecutors say he used his wealth, power and status “to traffic men for his own sexual pleasure”and to the delight of her British partner Matthew Smith, 61.
They said the pair, along with middleman James Jacobson, 71, used force, deception and coercion to get vulnerable, aspiring models to engage in violent and exploitative sex acts.
All three men pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on bail.
The FBI launched an investigation last year after the BBC revealed allegations that Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith sexually exploited men at events they hosted around the world.
The BBC investigationpublished in October 2023, found that the couple were at the center of a complex operation involving a middleman scouting young men for sex.
That same month, Brian Bieber, Mr Jeffries's lawyer, said his client had been seen several times by a neuropsychologist, who later concluded that he was suffering from two types of dementia and possibly late-onset Alzheimer's. .
In the court filing, Mr. Bieber added that during their first meeting last year, the former fashion boss “didn't even look like a guy with a master's degree who just nine years earlier was the CEO of a publicly traded company.” .
As a result, Mr. Bieber questioned Mr. Jeffries' ability to “reasonably assist” with possible factual and legal defenses to the charges he faced, according to the filing.
The application comes after Mr Jeffries' legal team requested a competency hearing, which will now take place over two days on June 16 and 17, 2025.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York declined to comment.
Mr Jeffries stepped down as CEO and Chairman of A&F in 2014. and walked away with a $25m (£19.9m) retirement package.
Alongside the criminal case, A&F, Mr Jeffries and his partner are defending a civil suit accusing the retailer of funding a sex-trafficking operation.
Earlier this month, Mr Jeffries sued A&F after it refused to pay his criminal defense costsclaiming that the brand had agreed to indemnify him for all claims arising from his position.
Heather Cuccolo, a New York Law School professor who specializes in mental disabilities and criminal law, said there are limited statistics on how the court system treats dementia, but that medical experts will have to weigh in before a judge makes a final decision.
“If Mike Jeffries is found competent, the case will move forward,” she said. “But if he is found to be incompetent and it is determined that there is no reasonable likelihood that his competency will be restored, then the charges should be dropped.”
His partner Matthew Smith and James Jacobson could still stand trial, but prosecutors would have to rely on independent evidence if Mr Jeffries was also found incompetent to testify as a witness, she added.