Abuse survivor says Epstein associate running model agency put her in danger

A former associate of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, identified as Fuller, still heads the New York‑based firm The Source Models, and a woman who says she was abused by Epstein claims the man put her in danger.

Documents obtained by the US Department of Justice show an email from Fuller to Epstein that highlights the close link between the modelling business and the billionaire, with Fuller writing in March 2012 that without Epstein they would have dismissed a model months earlier and warning that she "blabs about things".

Following Epstein’s second arrest in 2019, the US branch of the MC2 agency was closed and Fuller launched The Source Models, which remains active; the BBC discovered that fifty MC2 models were moved to his new firm.

According to lead counsel Sigrid McCawley, who represents more than a hundred victims, agencies such as MC2 were instrumental for Epstein, noting that he told many people he wanted three different girls a day and that scouts identified the type of women he preferred.

BBC Eye uncovered that former MC2 agent Ramsey Elkholy attempted to link thirty‑four women to Epstein, including an 18‑year‑old still attending school, and that he suggested one of Epstein’s female assistants befriend a potential victim before arranging a meeting.

The woman, who first met Epstein at age 19, told the BBC that he sexually assaulted her in his New York townhouse during that initial encounter.

Elkholy told the BBC, "I completely reject any allegation that I knew of or facilitated abuse of any kind… At the time, I had no knowledge of any abuse and I knew only his own [Epstein's] account of his 2008 [legal] case, which I misguidedly believed," adding that reports show women were often groomed by other women in his inner circle and that he was never part of that circle.

McCawley said the female assistants would have had "no choice" in how they behaved, explaining that the young survivors were abused regularly, their livelihoods threatened and they were forced to obey orders.

Another survivor, identified only as Simona, said she was raped more than 200 times by Epstein; she recalled meeting him at age 20 while signed to a New York agency, after which he offered to introduce her to his "good" friend Faith Kates, then head of Next Management, who stepped down from that senior role in December last year but remains a director of the company.