"The Agency Was Supposed to Protect Me": an 18-Year-Old Model From Uzbekistan Was Sent to Epstein, and the Agency's Then-Boss Runs a New One Today

She was 18 and had been in America for just one month. The young woman from Uzbekistan, who speaks publicly only under the name Roza, says the American branch of the modelling agency MC2 Model Management twice sent her to photo shoots at Jeffrey Epstein's house in Palm Beach in 2009. Epstein had already been convicted of a sex crime against a minor and was serving his sentence - with permission to work from home every day.

"My agency's job was to protect me, and it failed. In fact, it put me in danger. It should answer for that," Roza told the BBC. According to her, the photo shoots led to a job as Epstein's assistant, after which he systematically raped her. Other victims describe the same pattern: the "assistant" role was a convenient pretext for further abuse of young women.

At the centre of the allegations is Jeff Fuller, then president of MC2's American branch. He claimed he didn't know Roza was going to Epstein's. But she produced an expense report showing it was Fuller who booked her return flight from Palm Beach after the second shoot. Documents released by the US Justice Department show that ten MC2 models met or communicated with Epstein after his conviction, and that in 2005 he gave the agency a million dollars - even though the owners claimed two years later that he had nothing to do with it. In an email from March 2012, Fuller writes to Epstein about another model: "If it weren't for you, we would have fired her months ago. And I would be careful, she says all kinds of things."

A month after Epstein's second arrest in 2019, MC2's American branch was shut down. Fuller then opened a new agency, The Source Models, which still operates today and to which 50 MC2 models moved. Fuller did not respond to questions about these allegations. Lawyer Sigrid McCawley, who represents more than 100 Epstein victims, says agents were key because they recognised the "type" he liked. Former agent Ramsey Elkholy, according to the documents, tried to connect 34 women with Epstein, including an 18-year-old schoolgirl. He says he didn't know about the abuse.

Last year the Justice Department said there was no evidence for further investigation of "uncharged third parties". New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie is now proposing a law that would give police greater powers against those who helped Epstein. "Modelling agencies are often part of the problem. They are the link between models and predators," says Sara Ziff of the Model Alliance. Seven years after Epstein's death, the man who headed the agency that, according to Roza, sent her to his house still runs a modelling agency, and the law that would investigate the enablers is only now being proposed. How much longer will the victims have to wait?