Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Julia Molchanova on Escaping Jeffrey Epstein’s Cult-Like World (Part 1) (9/8/26)

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Julia Molchanova on Escaping Jeffrey Epstein’s Cult-Like World (Part 1) (9/8/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. When it comes to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: there have been many that have come forward. But the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: vast majority of women who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: still have not told their story. And a lot of
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: these women come from places like Eastern Europe. And it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: very difficult for them to come forward And talk about
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: what happened to them. And of course that's due to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: societal pressure. And also going against very powerful people in
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a place like, oh, I don't know, Latvia or Estonia
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: or Russia is probably not the best idea. So when
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we talk about the girls with no names, we're talking
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: about these girls from Eastern Europe and everywhere else in between.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And in this episode, we're going to be hearing from
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: this woman named Julia Makanova, who was 22 years old
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: when she first met Epstein, and who is now telling
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: her story for the first time. So today, we have
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: an article from the Wall Street Journal and the headline,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: How One Woman Was Caught in Epstein's Cult and Escaped.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: This article was authored by Khadija Safdar. Early in 2019,
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  Speaker 1: Julia Makanova Malkinova opened a credit monitoring app on her phone.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: It showed credit cards and spending that she didn't recognize.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: She had spent years as one of the young women,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein, called his assistants. A cover of Malkinova said
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: he used to hide his sexual abuse. She started to
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: suspect that Epstein was also using accounts set up in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: her name for his own purposes and decided to challenge
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: him for the first time. And that all tracks to
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Because once Jeffrey Epstein was in control of their immigration status,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: then he was in control of everything they had going on.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: And don't think for a second that's not a factor.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I don't think people understand how lucky we are to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: live in the United States. Even with all the problems,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: with all the bullshit, with all the nonsense, and with
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the terrible leadership, we're still lucky as hell. And I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: don't say that as somebody who's never left the United States.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I've been through Mexico. I've been through Central America. I've
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: been to South America. I've been to Brazil. I've been
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to favelas. And let me tell you, the vast majority
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: of Americans have no idea how good they have it. Now,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean everything's perfect. Far from. But all you
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: have to do is take a quick trip down south
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and you'll see real poverty. And I'm not even talking
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: about like Tijuana. I'm talking about real poverty. Honduras, Guatemala, Peru.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And then you have somebody like Jeffrey Epstein or Glenn
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Maxwell or Jean-Luc Brunel show up in a place like
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: that and they offer you a brand new life. These
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: girls are going to try and do whatever they can
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to get out of the circumstances they're in. Jeffrey Epstein
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: knew that and he used it as a tool. I
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable to discuss the future. Malkanova wrote to Epstein
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: on April 4th, 2019, sweat soaking into her shirt. as
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: she nervously typed the message. She told Epstein she didn't
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: know anything about an entity that he'd set up in
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  Speaker 1: her name, and that she wanted to have my normal life.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: In interviews with the Wall Street Journal, Malkinova publicly discussed
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: her ordeal for the first time, revealing that she was
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the Lee Jane Doe plaintiff in a class action lawsuit
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: against Bank of America. And good for her. I'm glad
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: she's getting a bag. Anybody who was abused by Jeffrey Epstein...
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: or his associates, should get paid. That's not even a discussion.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's the only ramifications that we've seen so far.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And if anyone's going to benefit from it, it should
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: be the women who were abused. And I've said from
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the beginning that the vast majority of this money should
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: go to the survivors. And the United States government, for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: all the bullshit they were involved in, they should waive
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the taxes on any of the estate money that's being
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: pieced off to the survivors. Because at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the day, they're the ones who suffered. And they're the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: ones who should get these funds. Do you know how
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: expensive therapy is? Putting your life back together? Not exactly
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: something you can do with a minimum wage job. I'm
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: going forward to prove that women have a voice and
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the ability to rebuild themselves, move forward, and do good
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: things in life, said the 37-year-old, who recently started a
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: fashion brand and plans to advocate for crime victims. The
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: lawsuit filed last year said Jane Doe was abused by
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Epstein for several years and held accounts at Bank of
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: America that Epstein used to facilitate his sex trafficking. The
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: suit accused the bank of ignoring suspicious transactions. Oh, there's
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: no doubt that they did. Every single bank he banked with,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: they were all up to the same bullshit. And that's
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: why every single bank that's been involved here has ended
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: up paying out a gigantic amount of money because they're
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: all culpable. Just like I've told you from the very beginning.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: If you're looking for a boogeyman here, it's the financial sector.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: And let me be crystal clear. I don't mean your
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: local bank teller or the local branch manager or even
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: like a VP or whatever. I'm talking about the movers
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: and shakers. People like Jess Daly, Mary Erdos, people like
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Jamie Dimon. Those are the people that are really in
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: control of everything. Hugh controls the purse, controls the day, right?
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  Speaker 1: And where do you think all these people are getting money? Politicians, etc.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: You think it just grows on trees? Or are they
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: going to banks to get it? Malkinova said the legal
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: process was grueling, including sharing private medical history, but she
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: said she feels good knowing it may have spared other victims.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: The man was supposed to be in jail. It was
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the system that failed us, she said. And if I
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: was somebody that was abused by Epstein... after the first
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: time around, I'd be pissed. And I'd be suing the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: federal government. 100%. Because she's not wrong. They failed. Their
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: job was to stop Jeffrey Epstein. And instead, they helped
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: him out. A federal judge recently approved $ 72. 5 million settlement
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: with Bank of America that'll be distributed to dozens of
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Epstein victims. The judge said the case brought actual justice,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: although partial, For the women. Yeah, financial justice. But what
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: about the people that made the decision to onboard Epstein?
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  Speaker 1: What about the people that ignored all of the transactions?
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Never any penalties for them, right? Oh, we'll pay a fine,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: but we'll keep it moving. Do you really think $ 72
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: million means anything to Bank of America? Brad Edwards, an
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: attorney who represented Malkinova and other Epstein victims in the lawsuit...
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: said she has every reason to protect her privacy and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: move forward quietly with her life. Instead, she chose to
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  Speaker 1: stand up, not only for herself, but for hundreds of
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: women whose names the world may never know. And look,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: there are going to be so many women that never
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: come forward. That's something I've told you from the very beginning.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: When you're talking about over a thousand women, I mean
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: how many of them unfortunately have passed on? How many
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: of them don't want anything to do with this story
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: ever again. And how many of them are still terrified?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Epstein's sexual exploitation didn't end with his 2008 conviction in Florida,
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  Speaker 1: as many of his famous associates later said they believed,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: but continued until his second arrest in 2019. They all knew, stop.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: The difference is, Epstein stopped going after young girls, underage,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and instead started bringing girls in, underage or otherwise. From
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: other countries. He just flipped the script. And that's because
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: he had way too much exposure. Doing it locally. So
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: he had to bring in girls from. Eastern Europe and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Central America. And other far flung places. Because he knew
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: nobody cared. He knew there wasn't going to be any.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: You know. Detective Rakari. He knew there wasn't going to be.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Any big investigation. Into what's going on with girls from Russia.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: The truth is. Nobody cared. And Jeffrey Epstein knew it.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: So that's why he started bringing these girls in. Because
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: he knew he can get away with it. After 2008,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: he targeted young women who were over 18 like Malkanova,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: but looked like teenagers, often seizing on vulnerabilities to draw
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: them in. Facts. 100%. And I told you that at
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the time. Like, this is not new to us. We've
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: been talking about this for how long? Jeffrey Epstein was
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: a lot of things. But he most certainly was crafty.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: And he was shrewd. And when you couple all of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that with all of the money he had, the power,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the protection, he was a very, very dangerous man. Malkinova
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: described how Epstein's methods became sophisticated after he was caught
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: in Florida getting sexual massages from teenage girls. Epstein registered
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: an LLC in Malkinova's name, presenting the business to her
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  Speaker 1: as her own design company, but she said he used
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: it for his own activities. He was a very manipulative man,
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  Speaker 1: she said, It was an illusion that you have something.
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  Speaker 1: In reality, I had nothing, and it was only beneficial
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  Speaker 1: for him. Yo, anybody under the illusion that Jeffrey Epstein
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: cared about anybody else besides himself is crazy. This is
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the most one-way dude in the history of history. of
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: one-way people. You know, there's a lot of people out
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: there that only care about themselves. But Epstein took it
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: to the next level. There was nothing this man wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: do if he wanted something. And there was no life
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  Speaker 1: he would not ruin to get there. Malkinova said she
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: was 22 when she first met Epstein in December of
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: 2011 on a trip to New York. She was living
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: in Russia at the time and spoke little English. He
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: spotted her on the street near Barney's on Madison Avenue,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: said something about her blue eyes, and directed her to
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  Speaker 1: his nearby townhouse as if he was pointing out a
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  Speaker 1: tourist attraction. Well, imagine she comes from Russia, has no
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: money really, doesn't really speak English, then this dude shows
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: up with this townhouse. She must think she hit gold, right?
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: oh man, Victoria's Secret, big time townhouse, this guy knows,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: the guy from MC squared, we're in business. Until they're not. Inside,
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  Speaker 1: there were several people, and through a young Russian woman
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: who translated for him, Epstein invited her to breakfast the
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  Speaker 1: next morning. When she returned, he asked a steady stream
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of questions, all of them translated by the woman. What
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: did she want? What did she dream of doing? Malkinova,
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  Speaker 1: a design student in Russia, told Epstein she was interested
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: in fashion design. Epstein said she offered to help her
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: enroll at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
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  Speaker 1: That was the hook, she said. Back in Russia, she
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: signed up for extra classes to learn sewing in preparation
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: for a fit program. The money for the sewing classes
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: came from Epstein. And this is one of his favorite moves.
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  Speaker 1: What do you want to do with your life? Oh,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I can help you with that. And the trap is set.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: And unfortunately... A lot of these women got caught up.
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  Speaker 1: Epstein lured her to New York in January of 2012
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: to show her fit and put her in an apartment
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: he controlled where he kept many of his victims. On
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: this trip, he sexually abused her for the first time.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: When she expressed her discomfort, she said he told her
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that the sexual openness was part of American culture and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that she'd have to change to assimilate. Oh yeah, part
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of American culture for us to molest you when you
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: come over here. What a fucking embarrassment. What a fucking
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: black eye. And the fact that our feckless ass do-nothing
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: government knew about this for years and did nothing about
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: it is just disgusting. So people can look for foreign
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: boogeymen all they want, but until we have our yard
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: cleaned up right here in America, how can we look
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: over the wall and cry about the neighbor's yard? And
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: that's why I say until we fix this problem, until
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: we address it, then nothing else even really matters, right?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: How can anyone take the institution seriously? How can anyone
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: take the government seriously if they refuse to address this?
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: What really closed the trap, she said, was a trip
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to Paris the next month. She went there with her
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: boyfriend in the middle of an argument with her boyfriend
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: that turned abusive. She got scared and texted Epstein, who
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: happened to be in Paris too. Epstein helped her escape
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: her boyfriend and put her on a flight home to Russia.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: All right, folks, we're going to wrap up episode one
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: right here. And in the next episode, we're going to
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: pick up with It Was Like a Cult. All the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: information that goes with this episode can be found in
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the description box.