A woman raped by Jeffrey Epstein claims the head of the modeling agency that represented her endangered her by sending her to two photo shoots at the convicted sex offender's Florida home.
At the time, in 2009, Epstein was serving a prison sentence for sex crimes against a minor, but was allowed to work daily from home.
"My agency's job was to protect me, and they failed. In fact, they put me in danger. And for that, they should be held accountable," he tells the BBC World Service.
Roza was 18 when the U.S. affiliate of MC2 Model Management first sent her to Epstein's Palm Beach home, just a month after arriving in the U.S. from Uzbekistan.
The then president of MC2 in the USA, Jeff Fuller, now runs another American modeling agency called The Source Models.
"My agency knew exactly where I was. So Jeff knew exactly where I was going," Roza notes.
image copyrightFashion TV
She shows us an expense statement that suggests Fuller himself booked her flight home from Palm Beach, following her second photo shoot at Epstein's house.
Fuller has indicated in the past that he was unaware that Roza was going to Epstein's house.
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According to her, the photo shoots led to her being hired as Epstein's assistant.
Other survivors have explained how the financier used the hiring of assistants as an elaborate ploy to continue abusing young women.
Roza says that Epstein proceeded to systematically rape her.
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Fuller did not give his version of events when asked by the BBC.
Previously, he had stated that he was unaware that Roza was being a victim of abuse.
Through Epstein-related documents released by the US Department of Justice, we discovered that 10 MC2 models met or communicated with Epstein after his conviction.
The files also show that Epstein donated $1 million to MC2 in 2005, even though the agency's owners told a US publication two years later that Epstein had no relationship with their company.
The testimony shared with BBC Eye also raises questions about the role played by two other people who were active in the modeling industry and who, according to Department of Justice files, had close relationships with Epstein: former agent Ramsey Elkholy and agency director Faith Kates.
A statement from the Justice Department last year that no evidence had been found to justify further investigation into "unindicted third parties" is now being challenged by Zellnor Myrie, a New York state congressional senator.
Myrie introduced an anti-sex trafficking bill to give police greater powers to investigate Epstein's alleged accomplices.
Sara Ziff, founder of Model Alliance, an organization that fights for greater protection for models in the US, approves.
"Often, [modeling agencies] are the problem. They are the link between the model and these predatory men," she maintains.
A close relationship
Roza claims that the person behind the camera at the photo shoots MC2 sent her to was not a professional photographer, but Epstein's girlfriend at the time, Nadia Marcinko.
Roza describes the situation as "strange" because "there was no stylist" and notes that the photos were never used.
Since then, she has been convinced that the photo sessions were orchestrated by Epstein and MC2.
An email found in Justice Department files, sent by Fuller to Epstein, makes clear the close relationship between the agency and the financier.
"If it hadn't been for you, we would have fired her months ago," Fuller writes about another model in March 2012. "And I would be careful, because she is gossiping," he adds.
A month after Epstein's second arrest in 2019, MC2's US affiliate dissolved and Fuller opened a new agency, The Source Models, which is still in operation.
The BBC discovered that 50 MC2 models were transferred to their new agency.
We asked The Source Models to comment on our findings but did not receive a response.
Modeling agencies were useful to Epstein, says Sigrid McCawley, the lead attorney for more than 100 Epstein victims.
"Epstein told a lot of people that he wanted three different girls a day. Think about those numbers (…) The [model] recruiters were essential because they were the ones who identified the type of woman that Epstein liked."
In the case of former agent Ramsey Elkholy, BBC Eye found that he tried to connect 34 women with Epstein, including an 18-year-old girl who was still at school.
The experience of one of the women highlights how the assistants were co-opted and incorporated into the structure of abuse.
According to Justice Department files, Elkholy suggested to Epstein that one of the financier's assistants befriend this woman before introducing her to Epstein.
We spoke to that woman and she revealed that in her first encounter with Epstein, when she was 19, he sexually abused her at his New York home.
In response to the allegations, Ramsey Elkholy told the BBC: "I categorically reject any accusation that I knew or facilitated abuse of any kind (…) At the time, I was not aware of any abuse and only knew of his own version [Epstein's] of his 2008 [legal] case, which I mistakenly believed."
"Records and published reports show that women were often manipulated by other women in their inner circle. I was never part of that circle, nor did I participate in any such activity (…) my intention was to help models find professional opportunities by introducing them to a person with excellent contacts," he continued.
Lawyer Sigrid McCawley asserts that these female assistants would have had "no choice" in the way they behaved.
"These young survivors were abused regularly. Their livelihood was in danger (…) They had to do what they were told," he says.
"We have been left with a deep trauma"
Another model we spoke to, Simona (not her real name), from Eastern Europe, told us that Epstein raped her more than 200 times.
"People believe that we gain something, that we accept this abuse to obtain some benefit, whether economic or influence, but it is not true. We have been left with a deep trauma," says Simona.
According to her, the first time she met the financier, at age 20, she already had a contract with a modeling agency in New York, and he offered to introduce her to his "good" friend Faith Kates.
At the time, Kates was the director of Next Management, one of the largest modeling agencies in the world. She left that executive position in December of last year, but legally remains listed as a director of the company.
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Simona remembers that, in that meeting, Kates suggested that she undergo plastic surgery and sent the details of a surgeon to Epstein.
After her meeting with Kates, Epstein convinced her to stop modeling, Simona says.
And like Roza and other of his victims, he became his assistant.
She claims he raped her and controlled every aspect of her life for almost two years.
Justice Department records show that Epstein asked Kates to meet with five other models, although it is unclear how many of these meetings took place.
Faith Kates' lawyers told the BBC: "Jeffrey Epstein was a master manipulator (…) Kates was one of the people Epstein seriously deceived. If she had known then what she – and everyone else – knows now, she would never have interacted with him."
The lawyers added that she had never asked a model to undergo plastic surgery.
We contacted Next Management for comment but they did not respond.
"When this bill becomes law, if you are an individual who was leading an agency and you were sending models to Epstein, and you knew what Epstein was doing, or should have known what he was doing, you will be held accountable," Myrie said of her initiative.
Roza hopes that by sharing her story it will encourage others to come forward.
"There are so many survivors who never speak because they are afraid. So to all my surviving sisters... you already know me. You know my name. I say: Contact me!"
Additional reporting by Annika Grosser
This article was originally written in English and we used an artificial intelligence tool to translate it. BBC journalists reviewed the text before publication. Learn more about how we use AI.
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