Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein ‘recruited models who looked like teenagers’ to avoid scrutiny after his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor.
The dead financier recruited numerous young adult female ‘assistants’ that he abused through a variety of means, including financially and sexually, and would coerce them into bringing more women into his orbit.
After his controversial 2008 plea deal which saw him serve just 13 months in an open prison for paying underage girls for sexual services, Epstein shifted his focus to adult women who looked like teenagers—many of them fashion models from Europe and Russia.
Once inside his orbit, the women said they were coerced into performing massages that escalated into sexual demands. Severa said he required at least one such encounter a day, and when no other women were available, he turned to his ‘assistants’.
Former Russian model Svetlana Pozhidaeva says she was one such victim and was lured into Epstein’s world in 2008 after the dead financier said he could arrange an audition with Victoria’s Secret.
This never happened and Svetlana, who walked on runways for well-known European fashion brands, was instead abused and coerced into recruiting more young women.
‘It’s been hard for me because for many years I’ve been so embarrassed that I wasn’t underage when I met him. I was in my early 20s,’ she told the Wall Street Journal.
‘I kept thinking that I was at fault for putting myself in this situation.’
Redaction errors in the Epstein files – which further revealed his links to numerous high-profile individuals including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson – left her name visible in the body of several emails.
This triggered a wave of attention that pushed Svetlana, who had changed her name and moved cities to escape her association with the notorious abuser, back into the spotlight.
The documents and emails show how Epstein relied on women like her to bring others into his orbit.
Svetlana said she was repeatedly pressured to introduce him to other models, forwarding photos, and modelling profiles at his request.
‘I feel ashamed and think about those other women all the time,’ she said.
‘That’s the hardest part of all of this—I was too consumed by my own abuse to see beyond it.
‘I had to appear happy, to keep smiling, while privately I was battling eating disorders, depression, and insomnia.’
Lawyers say this type of recruitment pressure is common in trafficking operations.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer who has represented dozens of Epstein accusers including Svetlana, said Epstein deliberately targeted women over 18 after his 2008 conviction to shield himself from scrutiny.
‘He drew very little scrutiny from law enforcement,’ he said.
Former federal prosecutor Moira Penza said such systems rely on power imbalances that make genuine consent impossible.
Once a predator creates an environment of dependency, she said, ‘consent just becomes irrelevant. There really is no way to consent’.
Svetlana said Epstein exerted extraordinary control over her life.
He helped secure her US visa and housed her at a Manhattan building alongside other women connected to him.
He also used contacts, including with a former Russian minister, to write immigration letters supporting her visa application.
The model said this created a sense that Epstein had a powerful influence both in the United States and Russia, leaving her fearful about what might happen to her family if she defied him.
Epstein also tightly controlled money given to her and her relatives, structuring payments as loans and meticulously tracking expenses.
Other women have said he would send detailed spending reports outlining what they allegedly owed him, reinforcing a financial dependency that made leaving feel impossible.
Svetlana said Epstein frequently promised lucrative jobs and introductions that never materialised. When opportunities failed to appear, she said he blamed her for not being ‘good enough’.
It was only after Epstein’s death in 2019 that she realised the promises had never been real.
Instead, she said, the disgraced financier had been making the same offers to numerous young models — many of whom, like her, believed they were being offered a legitimate path into the fashion industry.
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