Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Epstein's Modeling Industry Connections Face Renewed Scrutiny After BBC Investigation (11/11/26)

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Epstein's Modeling Industry Connections Face Renewed Scrutiny After BBC Investigation (11/11/26) · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. One of the biggest assets when it comes
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to Jeffrey Epstein and his criminal empire was most certainly
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the modeling industry. And one of the worst offenders when
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: it comes to Jeffrey Epstein and what Epstein was up
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to was MC2. Now MC2 was a modeling agency that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: was owned by Jean-Luc Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, however,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: was a shadow investor. But it's a fact and part
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: of the record that Epstein gave Jean-Luc Brunel roughly a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: million dollars as an investment into the company. And we
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: know that from the court documents. And we know that
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Jean-Luc Brunel sued Jeffrey Epstein because he said that Jeffrey
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Epstein's stench destroyed his company. Of course, the lawsuit didn't
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: end up going anywhere. Because it was scumbag A versus
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: scumbag B, they're both liars, and neither of them wanted discovery.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: So that lawsuit never went anywhere. But one thing's for
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: damn sure. Jeffrey Epstein was using MC2 as a vehicle
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and a pipeline to funnel women and girls into his orbit.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So today, we have an article from the BBC and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the headline, There Is No Justice. Epstein survivor on how
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: model agency sent her to abuser's home. This article was
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: authored by Awana Marasico, Shada Karan, and Haya Al-Badrna. Sorry
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: if I mispronounced that, Haya. A woman raped by Jeffrey
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Epstein says the president of the model agency representing her
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: put her in danger when he sent her to two
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: photo shoots at the convicted sex offender's Florida home. At
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the time in 2009, Epstein was serving a jail sentence
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: for sex offenses against a minor, but was allowed to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: work each day from his home. My agency's job was
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to protect me, and they failed. In fact, they put
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: me in danger, and for that, they should be held accountable,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: she tells BBC World Service, and there has to be
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: some kind of penalty for a company or a modeling
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: agency that does the things that MC Square did. And remember,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: we're not just talking about Epstein here. This whole entire
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: industry is just rife with all sorts of bullshit. All
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: sorts of misconduct and all kinds of abuse. And for
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: a very long time, they've been able to get away
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: with it. But I think people are becoming more aware
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that the whole modeling industry is basically a predator's paradise.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: You have a bunch of scantily clad, good-looking young women
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: and girls... And they all have dreams of being, you know,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the next top model. And then you have dirtbags like
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel who prey upon that. And we
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: heard that time and time again from girls and women
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: who were abused by Jeffrey Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel. Rosa
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: was 18 when she was first sent to Epstein's Palm
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Beach home by MC Squared Model Management's U.S. branch. having
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: only arrived in the U.S. from Uzbekistan about a month earlier.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: MC Squared's U.S. president at the time, Jeff Fuller, now
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: runs another U.S. model agency called The Source Models. Of
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: course he does. There's never been any accountability, so why
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: would we think that he's not working in the industry anymore?
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: My agency knew exactly where I was, so Jeff knew
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: exactly where I was going, says Rosa. And there's no doubt,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, we've heard this now from how many girls
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and women about the pipeline through MC Squared, about Jean-Luc
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Brunel's role, about Jeffrey Epstein working in the shadows with
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: MC Squared to get these girls to think that they're
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: going to have these gigantic careers as models. And then
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: once he gets them into the web, it was a wrap.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: No modeling gigs, just abuse at the hand of Jeffrey Epstein.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and a select group of friends. She shows us an
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: expense statement suggesting Fuller himself booked her flight home from
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Palm Beach following her second shoot at Epstein's home. Fuller
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: has previously claimed he did not know Rosa was going
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: to Epstein's house. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure nobody had
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: any idea. And I'm sure that Mr. Fuller is just
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: afflicted with another case of Epstein-related amnesia, you know, like
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the rest of these people. She says the photo shoots
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: led to her being employed as an assistant to Epstein.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Other survivors have explained how the financier used the recruitment
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: of assistants as an elaborate ruse to allow him to
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: continue abusing young women. Well, it's only a ruse to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: people who aren't paying attention. You really mean to tell
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: me that all the smartest men in the room, all
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the most powerful and rich men in the room, had
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: no idea that the rotating list of girls that were
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: coming and going with Epstein wasn't out of the ordinary?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: You mean to tell me they all thought that was
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: just how it worked? Oh, goofy ass Jeffrey Epstein. Cuz
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: had a face that only a mother could love. And
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: you really think that all these pretty young women were
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: flocking around him like he was Brad Pitt in his prime?
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Come on, man. Now you could say, well, he's rich.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And that's true. When you're rich, that's certainly the case.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: But this was something more. And they all knew at
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the very least, about the financial malfeasance. And that's because,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, the vast majority of these people were
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: engaging in the same ass kind of malfeasance as Epstein
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: was when it comes to the financial system. Rosa says
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that Epstein went on to systematically rape her. Fuller has
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: not responded to the BBC's allegations. He has previously said
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: he did not know Rosa was being abused. Now, how
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: do you prove that? That's the rub, right? Pretty difficult
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: to prove that. Unless, of course, his name is on
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: documents and on emails and stuff. Then, of course, we
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: have a contemporaneous chain. So that makes things a lot
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: more palpable when we're talking about trying to convict somebody.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: But short of that, I don't see somebody like this
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: getting in trouble. And I wish I could tell you differently.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: But I just, I don't see it. Unless, of course,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: they follow the money. But if they do that, then
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: they're going to put all their friends in jeopardy, and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that's what they're trying to avoid. We've discovered through the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice that
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: 10 models from MC2 met or were in communication with
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Epstein after his conviction. How long have I been telling
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you that this scumbag was in dereliction of the NPA
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: and that the NPA should be thrown out two years ago,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: five years ago, when it was written? I mean, it
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: is just an absolute abomination. This man didn't respect any
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: of the parameters of the deal, and even in death,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: they refused to get rid of it. The files also
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: show that Epstein gave $ 1 million to MC2 in 2005,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: despite the agency owners telling a U.S. publication two years
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: later that Epstein had no involvement in their company. Well,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: we know that's bullshit. absolute and utter rubbish, as they'd
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: say across the pond. And look, if they're lying about that,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: what else are they lying about? Testimony shared with BBCI
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: also raises questions about the role played by two other
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: individuals who are active in the model industry and whom
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the DOJ files show had close relationships with Epstein, former
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: agent Ramsey L. Coley and agency director Faith Cates. Again,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: this is an industry-wide problem And we mainly focus on
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: MC2 here because of the Epstein angle. But the modeling
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: industry as a whole is just filled with predatory type people.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And I think that's becoming more apparent by the day.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: A DOJ statement from last year that no evidence has
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: been uncovered which would warrant further investigation against uncharged third
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: parties is now being challenged by New York State Senator
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Zellner So this is where we get back to dual sovereignty,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: where the state of New York is well within their
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: rights to go after people that were involved with Epstein
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: if they have a case to build. And we're starting
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to see some of these states start to veer into
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that lane. Now, does that mean that's going to happen? No,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: but it's certainly a tool in the toolbox. He proposed
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a new sex trafficking bill to give police greater power
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: to investigate Epstein's alleged enablers. Sarah Ziff, founder of the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Model Alliance, which campaigns for stronger protections for models in
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the U.S., approves. Often model agencies are the problem. They're
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the link between these models and these predatory men. That's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: a fact. And I'm not trying to pile on the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: modeling industry, right? I don't have a beef with them
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. But facts are facts. And if
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: any industry needs to be looked at, if any industry
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: needs a wide-ranging investigation, It's the modeling industry. Rosa says
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the person behind the camera at the photo shoot MC2
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Center 2 was not a professional photographer, but Epstein's girlfriend
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: at the time, Nadia Marcinko. Well, let's not get too
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: carried away. Girlfriend? Let's remember that he purchased Nadia when
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: she was a girl, and he groomed her and turned
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: her into what she is. Now, does that mean she
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: has no responsibility for what she did? Of course not.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: But I think it's a different conversation than somebody like
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Sarah Kellen Vickers, who is an adult and came into
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: it eyes wide open. Little different when you're a younger
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: girl from a different country, you're brought here, and all
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of this is normalized to you, and you're groomed, right?
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Rosa describes the setup as strange. There was no stylist,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: and the photos were never used. She has since become
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: convinced the shoots were stage managed by Epstein and MC Squared.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: An email in the DOJ files from Fuller to Epstein
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: makes clear the close ties between the agency and the
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  Speaker 1: financier Pedophile, had it not been for you, we would
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: have fired her months ago, fuller rights of another model,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: in March of 2012, and I would be careful as
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: she blabs about things, he says. A little insider baseball, huh? Hey,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: so-and-so likes to blab, so you might not want to
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: diddle her. Instead of saying, hey motherfucker, if you touch
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: one of my models, you're getting these hands. Now that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: would be the right approach. Do people forget that these
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: girls and these women is someone's daughter, bro? And look,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that women are infallible. We all know
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that's not true. But this shit right here, is there
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: anything more predatory? A month after Epstein's second arrest in 2019,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: MC's US branch was dissolved and Fuller opened a new agency,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: The Source Models, which is still operating. The BBC has
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: found that 50 models from MC Squared were transferred to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: his new agency. We asked the source models to comment
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: on our findings. It did not reply. Model agencies were
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: useful to Epstein, says Sigrid McCauley, the lead lawyer, for
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: more than 100 of Epstein's victims. Oh, there's no doubt
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: it was a gigantic pipeline. And once things went south
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: for Epstein in America, he started to use this pipeline
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: to bring the girls in from Eastern Europe, South America,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: and wherever else he could find them. Epstein said to
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: many people he wanted three different girls a day. Think
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: about those numbers. The model scouts were really critical because
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: they were the ones who were identifying the type of
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: women that Epstein liked. In the case of former agent
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Ramsey L. Coley, BBC Eye has discovered he tried to
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: connect 34 women to Epstein, including an 18-year-old who was
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: still in school. Now look, I know people will say, oh,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: she's of age, and that's true. But what if it
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: was your daughter coming from whatever country, brought to America
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on the promise of work, and then getting abused. Would
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: you have that same opinion? I have a hard time
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: believing that you would. The experience of one of the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: women highlights how assistants would be co-opted into the structure
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of abuse. El-Kholi, the DOJ file show, suggested to Epstein
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: that one of the financier's female assistants befriend this woman
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: before introducing her to Epstein. We spoke to this woman
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: and she revealed that her first meeting with Epstein, age 19,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: he sexually abused her in his New York townhouse. Of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: course he did. That's what he did every time he
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: met somebody. See how far he could push it. Ramsey
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Elkoly told the BBC, I completely reject any allegation that
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I knew of or facilitated abuse of any kind. At
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: this time, I had no knowledge of any abuse and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I knew only his own account of his 2008 legal case.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: which I misguidedly believed. He continued, the record and published
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: reporting show that women were often groomed by other women
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: in his circle. I was never a part of that
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: circle or indeed of any such activity. My intention was
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: to help models find professional opportunities by introducing them to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: an extremely well-connected individual. Well, how about protecting them? Whenever
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I've been a manager, and that's pretty much every job
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I've ever had, I was extremely protective of my employees.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: If somebody came in and started abusing them verbally, I'd
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: step right in. Who doesn't protect their employees? Who sends
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: them into the belly of the beast, especially? Lawyer Sigrid
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: McCauley say these female assistants would have had no choice
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: in how they conducted themselves. Bingo, they relied fully on
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein and the operation. Epstein took care of the immigration.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: He put them up in the building at 66th Street
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: or at his own house. And he was in charge
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of the whole dance. These young survivors were being abused regularly.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Their livelihoods were being threatened. They had to do what
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: they were being told to do. Another model we have
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: spoken to, Simona, not her real name, from Eastern Europe,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: told us that Epstein had raped her more than 200 times.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: People think that we gained something. That we agreed on
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: this abuse in order to gain something. Whether it's monetary
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: or or influential, but it's not true. We're left with
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: deep trauma, says Simona. She says the first time she
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: met the financier, age 20, she was already signed with
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: a model agency in New York, and he offered to
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: introduce her to his good friend, Faith Cates, another person
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: who needs to be looked at. Now, I'm not saying
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Faith Cates was abusing anybody herself, but I'm talking about
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: enabling Epstein's abuse. How many women were sent into the
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: belly of the beast by Faith Cates? At the time,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Cates was the head of Next Management, one of the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: world's biggest model agencies. She stepped down from that senior
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: executive position in December last year, but is still legally
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: listed as a director of the company. Simona says at
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: this meeting, Cates suggested she undergo plastic surgery and send
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: details of a surgeon to Epstein. And listen, I'm certainly
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: not fucking Adonis over here, but when you look at
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Faith Cates, she has some nerve telling anybody what to
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: do with their face. She's out here looking like the
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: character from the movie Hannibal who had his face eaten off.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: And she has the audacity to tell somebody that they
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: should go get plastic surgery. And that's another thing that
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: baffles me about the modeling industry. You always have these
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: mutants out here who run the show who are telling
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: these girls and dudes to go get plastic surgery or
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: lose weight. And then you look at these people and
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you're like, huh? How can you possibly sit there and
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: tell somebody else that they're not good looking enough? Do
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: you have a mirror at home? Have you ever looked
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: in it? Does it work correctly? And just like Rosa
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and several other of his victims, she became his assistant.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: She says he went on to rape her and control
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: every aspect of her life for nearly two years. The
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: DOJ files show Epstein asked Cates to meet an additional
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: five models, though it's not clear how many of these
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: meetings took place. Warriors for Faith Cates told BBC Jeffrey
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Epstein was a master manipulator. Miss Cates has one of those,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: grossly misled by Epstein. Had she known, then what she
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: and everyone else knows now, she would have never associated
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: with him. They added that she had never asked a
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: model to have plastic surgery. Okay, sure she didn't. So
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: everybody's lying, and Faith Cates is telling the truth. Sure.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: We approached next management for comment, but it did not reply.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Myrie told the BBC that if his bill were to
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: become law, and you were sending models to Epstein, and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: you knew what Epstein was doing, or you should have
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: known what he was doing, you will be held accountable.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Rosa Hope, sharing her story, will encourage others to come forward.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: There are many, many survivors out there who never speak,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: because it's scary. So to all my sister survivors, you
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: know me now. You know my name. I say reach out. Well,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: it's nice to see that the modeling industry is finally
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: under the spotlight, because in my opinion, it's been a
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: long time coming. So we'll see if the bill makes
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: it through. And when we have an update one way
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: or the other, we'll get that added to the catalog
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: as well. All the information that goes with this episode
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: can be found in the description box.