Will Jeffrey Epstein's associates be brought to justice under Democrats? | Global News Podcast

This is the Global News podcast from the. BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver. Conway and today, will Jeffrey Epstein's. associates be held accountable when the. Democrats take control of Congress? A. BBC investigation has found that. powerful figures in the fashion industry. helped Epstein gain access to young. women. >> Testimony from more than 100 models show. Epstein targeted Eastern European women. flying hundreds of models to Paris and. New York. We'll hear from some of the. women affected. >> Jeffrey Epson was convicted felon and he.

was in house arrest. while raping me. >> And we ask our reporter whether a. Democrat-led Congress could help victims. get justice. >> Congressman Robert Garcia has already. called to investigate uh alleged. co-conspirators and people who have not. yet been questioned. A BBC investigation has uncovered new. evidence about how model agencies, scouts, and powerful fashion figures. helped Jeffrey Epstein gain access to.

young women after his conviction for sex. offenses. BBCI examined court records, financial statements, and emails. published by the US Department of. Justice and spoke to more than 100. models. Shada Kieran has this report. When you land in New York, it's like. something in the air and you feel like, "Oh my god, the sky is the limit.". Simona was a 20-year-old model from. Eastern Europe who went to America to. make it big. Then she met Jeffrey.

Epstein. He offered to open doors. Instead, she says she became his. assistant and the abuse began. Simona is. portrayed by an actor. It's the first. time she's telling her story. Given the. fact that I spent in the orbit around. like two years, it would be probably 200. times that I was raped. When we entered massage room, I. immediately dissociated myself from my. body in order to endure all of that.

>> Simona wasn't the only one. Flight. records along with testimony from more. than 100 models the BBC has spoken to. show Epstein targeted Eastern European. women flying hundreds of models to Paris. and New York. BBCI has also found that. Epstein leveraged agencies for access. In 2005, he put $1 million into the. agency MC Squared based in the US, an. investment which was meant to stay. secret. Four years later, the same. agency sent one of its models, Rosa, to.

photooots at Epstein's Florida home. She. too began working as his assistant. >> Jeffrey Epstein was convicted felon of. raping an underage girl. and he was in house arrest. while raping me. >> Jeff Fuller was president of MC Squared. when Epstein invested. His name appears. in the files more than 200 times. discussing the agency and the models. with Epstein. Financial statements show.

he booked Rosa a flight from Florida. around 2 weeks after she says Epstein. sexually abused her. The BBC also found. another model from MC Squared was sent. to a photo shoot with Epstein around the. same time. >> That's pretty. We've got the lights. behind. It's gorgeous. Former 90s. supermodel Lisa Moore now works behind. the camera as a photographer and. industry campaigner. She studied the. emails between Fuller and Epstein.

>> Jeff Fuller to Jeffrey Epstein. Had it not been for you, we would have. fired her months ago. The telling thing. here is if it weren't for you, we. wouldn't have kept her, right? You can't be around a predator for that. long. and not see anything. >> A month after Epstein's arrest, Jeff. Fuller closed MC Squared. He's now. running a Miami based agency. Jeff. Fuller has not responded to the BBC's.

allegations. He's previously said he did. not know Rosa was going to Epstein's. home. In New York, work is underway to. investigate Epstein's alleged enablers. Zelna's trafficking bill would give. police greater powers to do so. When. this bill becomes law, if you are an. individual that was leading an agency. and you were sending models to Epstein. and you knew what Epstein was doing or. you should have known what he was doing,

you will be held accountable. >> American authorities have effectively. stopped looking into Epstein's network. For survivors in the US like Rosa, this. legislation could keep the search for. justice alive. Jada Kieran reporting. And while Zelnner Mari seeks greater. accountability at state level, Democrats. in Washington have promised to go after. alleged associates and enablers of. Jeffrey Epstein once they take control. of Congress in January following their. success in the midterm elections. Shader.

is in the studio now. What can you tell. us about the campaign to hold Jeffrey. Epstein's associates to account? I mean, for us, it was really shocking going. into the story because we at the time. when we first started working on it in. 2025, the DOJ said there would be no. further investigation linked to the. Epstein files. And we were obviously. hearing all of these people calling for. accountability, having seen what they. saw. And we knew that there were so many. third party players involved that were.

never held accountable or investigated. So, that was our starting point. And. throughout the course of our. investigation as we spoke to a hundred. women across 14 different countries and. and really got to the bottom of the. story that we felt like was the untold. part of the story which was the foreign. women and this kind of new emmo that. Epstein used after his conviction in. 2008. We we started to think about okay what. who is doing something about this? Like. surely it can't be something that's just. gone off the radar so much. And and then.

we found this New York state senator. called Senator Zelni and we interviewed. him while we were in New York and we. found his bill really interesting and. he's trying to push it through in. January and we spoke to him and he. essentially told us this bill is all. about how can we hold accountable. Epstein's alleged co-conspirators. And so for him the key thing is it's. those who knew or those who should have. known. And this is important for us.

because a lot of women are having to. prove things that are really difficult. to prove in certain instances and in. some cases the the knowledge of. Epstein's conviction they should have. known and they shouldn't have sent. someone to the house of a registered sex. offender. So that's what Senator Zelnari. was trying to do with this bill and he. is trying to push it and he says the. fact that there's no investigation by. the US authority since the release of. the DOJ files is the biggest miscarriage.

of justice of our time. >> Of course it will be a Democrat. controlled US Congress in January. What. more do we know about their plans to. take action on this? >> So we've seen some movement. Um, we've. seen that a group of Democratic. legislators are set to introduce a bill. that would look at the banks and more. financial executives who did business. with Epstein, which was also a part of. the investigation that that we looked. into for a while linked to the fashion. agencies. But we also saw that. Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia has.

already called to investigate uh alleged. co-conspirators and people who have not. yet been questioned by authorities. And. of course, there's another push to. release more of the Epstein files that. weren't released in the last batch. >> Yeah. I mean, you've been trolling. through lots of files. Do you think. there could be more stuff that hasn't. come out yet? >> Of course. I mean, we for any journalist. to start a story with such a huge amount. of information. We're talking court.

records, emails, financial statements, flight logs. It's in a way a, you know, clues everywhere. And we can't even. imagine what more there might be that. would lead us to different places in. Epstein story. >> I mean, it's known that Jeffrey Epstein. had these relationships with highpowered. people. Tell us more about his links to. the fashion industry and and how that. helped him do what he did. >> I mean, Epstein utilized the fashion. industry particularly after his.

conviction. And that was because he knew. that he didn't have access to a pool of. women in Florida the way he did prior to. his conviction. So he he shifted his MMO. to praying on Eastern European women. And that's what we found. And and one. thing that he tapped into was their. modeling dream. And they were often from. more vulnerable immigration backgrounds. They had lacking language skills and. stuff like that. And so he would often. use this fashion dream as a form of. bait. And one name that came up in the.

files over 5,000 times is Faith Kates. And she's um the former head of Next. Management, which is one of the biggest. fashion agencies in the world. And she. appears in the files. She appears to. have a long-standing relationship with. Epstein. And we found that two women. were groomed by Epstein with the. introduction to Faith Kates. And this. was a part of their journey, and they. both went on to become assistants and. abused by him for years. So, um, he used.

a lot of big names like Faith Kate to. lure women into his world. And Faith. Kate said she was grossly misled by. Epstein. And had she knew what she knows. now, she would have never been. associated with him. >> And ultimately, do you think these women. will get justice? >> It's a really hard question. I think. they all feel they've been let down by. authorities. and justice is a very hard. prospect to them because not only were. they let down back in pre209 when they.

were abused for years but then they were. let down again this year when their. identities were revealed without their. consent. So for them justice feels like. a very complicated and long journey. Jada Kieran, thank you. And you can. watch the full documentary BBCI the. model trap on the BBC World Service. YouTube channel and the BBC i Player if. you're in the UK. You can also find the. audio version of the Global News podcast. wherever you get your podcasts. If you.

want to get in touch, our contact. details are below. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.