Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Julia Molchanova on Escaping Jeffrey Epstein’s Cult-Like World (Part 2) (9/8/26)

Transcript

Julia Molchanova on Escaping Jeffrey Epstein’s Cult-Like World (Part 2) (9/8/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode we're picking up where we
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: left off with the Wall Street Journal article that was
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: authored by Khadija Safdar. And the headline of this article?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: How one woman was caught in Epstein's cult and escaped.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It was like a cult. Malkanova eventually moved to New
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: York and started following Epstein's advice, hoping she'd break into design.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But no fit education materialized. A spokeswoman for FIT said
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the university is continuing to investigate references to the school.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And it's not the only person. We've heard about FIT
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: from multiple people. I believe Joanna Schuberg told us about
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: this as well. And I think we've heard about it
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: from a couple of other women who said that this
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: was the carrot that was dangled. And obviously, the vast
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: majority of these women were strung along by Jeffrey Epstein
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: over the years. Over time, Epstein expected her to become
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: an assistant, though there was never any real work, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: his advice turned into a set of rules. She was
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: supposed to thank him constantly, act happy, and be friendly
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to everyone. Well, those were the rules, right? Epstein had
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a very strict set of rules for his assistants, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I honestly don't think it's a stretch to call it
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a cult. And Jeffrey Epstein really knew how to manipulate
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the situation, and he knew how to tell these women
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  Speaker 1: exactly what they wanted to hear. And before they realized it,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: They were in too deep. It was like a cult,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: she said. Aside from coercing the women into sex acts
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: on a regular basis, Epstein also expected the women to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: bring him other women, she and other victims have said.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: And that's where things get a bit thorny, right? Who
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: was the trafficker, who was trafficked, who was coerced, and
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: who was brought in on it? But you have to understand,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: that was all part of it, the confusion. So that
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: later on down the road, when this conversation started happening,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: like it's happening now, he can say that they were
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: all involved. Everybody was in on this, not just me.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Everybody enriched themselves, even the women. They weren't being abused.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: And the sad truth is, there's a whole lot of
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: people who bought that nonsense. You know, the people who
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: call this a hoax, the people who attack the survivors,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: they bought it hook, line, and sinker. And Epstein knew
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: they would. This man was a master of misdirection and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: narrative building. That's what he excelled in. Because she didn't
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: bring anyone, Malkanova said, his anger intensified towards her, and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: he would constantly ask what she was doing to make
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: herself useful. She said on a few occasions, he sent
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: her to a room in his home to stay in
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: isolation for multiple days. Oh, you're grounded. A grown-ass woman.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Go to your room. Don't come out. Say what now?
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Why not? Well, you wouldn't bring me other girls to molest.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't feed the beast. So you have to be punished.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Go to your room. What a sick, disgusting, vile human being.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And I use that word loosely. And if anybody ever
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: deserved a trip to a volcano and get shoved out
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of the helicopter above that active volcano, it's Jeffrey Epstein.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Malkinova said Epstein kept tabs on her spending. She remembers
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: receiving less than $ 3, 000 a month from him, but said
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the amount fluctuated. She said he dictated what she wore,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: how long her hair would be, what doctors she visited,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and whom she spent time with. Documents show that Epstein
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: arranged for Malkinova and another woman to marry one another
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: around 2013, a tactic the journal has reported he used
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: with other women too. Immigration fraud. That's what they were doing.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, you have to really have your head in
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the sand not to understand what was going on here
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: when it comes to immigration. It was one of Jeffrey
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Epstein's most potent weapons. And he also dangled it As
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a benefit for these women, oh, you want to come
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to America? I got you. I got the hookup. I
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: got a scam. I got a hustle. We'll say that
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: you're married to so-and-so. You'll come to America. That'll be that.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And if it wasn't for Virginia and her going absolutely
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: scorched earth on Jeffrey Epstein and his bitch-ass associates, hardly
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: any of this would be in the public eye. And
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I think people should keep that in mind and remember that. Look,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Virginia wasn't perfect. None of us are. but I don't
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: think anybody who's serious about anything is ever going to
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: question her courage. In 2014, Epstein's lawyer, Darren Indyke, helped
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: form a company registered under her name called JSC Interiors.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: She said Epstein passed it off as a way to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: help her launch a design business. She ran a couple
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: of design-related errands, like arranging flowers, and then Epstein used
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: an account associated with the company to move money and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: make transactions without her knowledge, she said. Oh yeah, a
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: little money laundering here, Little money laundering there. Little malfeasance.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: All good. Just a regular morning for Jeffrey Epstein. But
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: no crimes were committed, folks. Nothing to see here. Unless
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you have videos, we don't want to hear it. I
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: guess that's where we are. No crime can be committed
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: unless there's a video. And nobody can be held responsible
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: for their crimes either, obviously. Just say you're a little
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: crazy and fuck it. You're all good. I still have
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: so many questions about what the company was. Because no
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: one ever explained it to me and I wasn't allowed
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to ask questions, she said. It made me super scared
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: because I couldn't understand what I was responsible for. Yeah,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that wasn't the point, though. The idea is she was
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: a beard. She was a front man or front woman
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: for whatever bullshit Epstein was up to. Just another way
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  Speaker 1: for him to funnel funds. So my question is, did
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: any of Leon Black's money find its way into any
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of these accounts for these girls? And if it did, congratulations,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Leon Black. You're part of the conspiracy. Oh, that's right.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: They didn't charge him with Rico. Silly me. That's only
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: for Italian people, I guess. Malkanova said she only found
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: out years later and that Epstein's activities in her name
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: went beyond Bank of America, including the spending she discovered
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: from the credit monitoring app and a furniture order for
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: nearly $ 40, 000 that she recently found in the Justice Department files.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: In a statement, attorneys Rindyke and Epstein Accountant Richard Kahn
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: said Malkinova never informed them she was a victim of
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: abuse or trafficking. Julia appeared to be one of Epstein's
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: assistants working through an LLC that Epstein set up for
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: interior design purposes, the statement said. Like, they don't even
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: believe that, okay? That's the cover. The fact that we're
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: letting them get away with that is bananas. Indykin Kahn
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: should have been charged with RICO a decade ago. But
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: somehow they're still protected. Somehow they're still running the estate.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And somehow they're still going to benefit from whatever's left
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: over in the estate. Does anybody else see a problem here?
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Because as far as I'm concerned, these two dudes should
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: not get one single penny. And instead, they should be
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: facing indictment. Both Kahn and Indyke recently told Congress they
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: didn't facilitate or know about Epstein's criminal history. Malkinova said
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Epstein's control extended to other parts of her life, and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: when she tried to date other men, he dictated what
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: she wrote to them and demanded a full account of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: everything that passed between them. Of course. Gotta get that intel, right?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Gotta get that compromise. That was part of it, too.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: The design work never materialized. Instead, Epstein sent her to
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Faith Cates Modeling Agency Next Management for a job interview.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: In May of 2015, Cates told Epstein that Malkinova said
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: she didn't want to sit at a desk all day
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and had never worked in an office. Epstein berated Malkinova
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for not asking for a front desk job. You told
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: them you were going to school and didn't want to
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: work at a desk, he wrote to her in an email.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I am angry. God forbid. God forbid I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to go work for Faith fucking Cates, sit at a
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: desk all day, and do God knows what. In a statement,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Next Management said it had never had a relationship with Epstein.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Faith Cates' multi-decade long personal relationship with Epstein was completely
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and absolutely unknown to Next Management and its top executives.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: It said, I have my doubts about that. So nobody
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  Speaker 1: had any idea? Nobody ever said, hey Faith, what's the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: deal with that Jeffrey Epstein guy? Why are you spending
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: so much time with him? Nobody ever said that? Nobody ever, huh?
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: These people, they truly believe you're stupid. Cates didn't respond
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to requests for comment. After the Justice Department released some
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of her correspondence with Epstein, Kate said in late 2025
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: that she was retiring from Next Management. Oh, I'm sure
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: she is. God forbid she has to answer questions, right?
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Now she can say, look, I have no comment. I
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: don't work for Next Management. Blah, blah, blah. But what
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: those emails reveal is a very, very tight relationship. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: my question is, what did Faith Cates know? And when
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: did she know it? Epstein also placed Malkinova in internships
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: arranged by his friends, including a stretch she describes interning
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: for the publicist Peggy Siegel in 2016. Malkinova said she
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: felt out of place, held back by her limited English.
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  Speaker 1: If he really wanted to help, he would have sent
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: me to learn English, she said. Instead, it was all
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: a bunch of nonsense. Siegel didn't respond to requests for comment.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: She previously told the journal that she was unaware of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Epstein's nefarious behavior and it was a mistake to associate
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: with him. I had no idea. What do you mean
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein was a sick degenerate? Nobody ever told me
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that he was a derelict. Those years took a toll
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: on Malkanova's body and her mind. As her weight fluctuated,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Epstein criticized her and called her fat. At her lowest,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Malkanova said, She was thinking about suicide, and Epstein didn't
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: let her see a therapist. Her mental health declined further,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: she said, after a tabloid in 2016 ran photos of
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: her with Epstein. I remember thinking that I'm trapped forever,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and my life is over. Yikes. Imagine feeling like that,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: like you have nowhere to go, no one to help you,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and nobody's listening. I can't even imagine. And thankfully, that's
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: something that I'll never have to experience. But does that
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: mean I shouldn't have empathy for people that did or do?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: And that goes for anyone who's involved in human bondage,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: whether that's male, female, child, whatever, and whether that's sexual
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: or physical labor or whatever it might be. I can't
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: believe I need to say this, but in the year 2026,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: slavery shouldn't be a thing. In 2017, Epstein's lawyer handled
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the paperwork for her to get divorced, and she describes
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the years after that as an effort to just get out.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: She had a serious boyfriend that she hoped she could
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: marry to escape Epstein, but Epstein kept summoning her back,
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  Speaker 1: and the abuse continued. She didn't tell her boyfriend what
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: was happening, and they eventually broke up. Who wants to
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: tell their boyfriend? Hey, look, this guy makes me come
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: over and do all kinds of unseemly things. Who's telling
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: their boyfriend that? Now, maybe if it's somebody you've been
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: with for quite some time, but some guy that you're
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: trying to build a life with, Nobody wants to say that.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: They don't want to be judged and looked at like
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: they're less than. In early 2019, Malkanova finally confided in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: a friend about how ensnared she was in Epstein's web
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and that person gave her a roadmap for getting out.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: It led her to send emails that March to Epstein's
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: bookkeeper asking why the credit card she didn't recognize were
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: showing up on her credit report. The bookkeeper responded that
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the report was showing the balance and of Epstein's entire
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: American Express account, and that she would have Malkinova removed
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: from the account. Malkinova told Kahn, the accountant, that she
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: wanted to see her tax returns, and that she wanted
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: to be removed from JSC Interiors. Kahn wrote back that
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: since she was uncomfortable, she could hire another accountant to
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: handle her returns, and that he would send paperwork she
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: could sign to exit JSC Interiors. Yeah, God forbid Kahn
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: does the right thing. Well, well, we'll find somebody else
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: for you since you don't trust me. Yeah, bitch, I
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: don't trust you because your boss has been molesting me
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and abusing me, you dumb fuck. What do you mean
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I don't trust you? Goddamn right I don't trust you.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Around that same time, she sent an email confronting Epstein.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: He invited her to Palm Beach, but she didn't go.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I thought for sure at that moment someone would find
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: me on the bottom of his pool if I did go,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: she said. Leslie Groff, Epstein's longtime assistant, texted her, trying
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: to get her to call Epstein. She also began getting
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: calls from another young woman in Epstein's orbit. Despite the outreach,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: she never went back. In a statement, lawyers for Groff
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: said she performed administrative tasks for Epstein and had no
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: knowledge of Epstein's crimes while she was working for him.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that, and I've told you that from
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the jump. I think Leslie Groff is lying. Now look,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I can't prove that. I'm not going to sit here
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and tell you she was abusing people. But I don't
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: believe her story. Not for a minute. Long before her escape,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Malkinova gave Epstein the codename Mishka, a Russian term that
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: translates loosely as little bear, from a popular song that
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: describes a bear who was a criminal. In June 2019,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: she made a painting depicting the bear being arrested and decapitated.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: She never imagined that on July 6, Epstein would be arrested,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and that a few weeks later, he would be found dead.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And Julia's story continues. is just one of many. And
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I think that as we move forward and we see
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: more people like Julia telling their story, it's going to
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: open up the floodgates and there's going to be other
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: people that step up and tell us just how deep
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: their abuse went at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein. And
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: like usual, we'll be here for every single step and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: every single story as we continue to swim through the
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: muck looking for that clarity. All the information that goes
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.