One of Jeffrey Epstein's victims has said that an associate of the late financier 'repeatedly' put her in danger, and that the modelling agency meant to protect her failed in that duty.
Roza, who spoke to the BBC, said she was only 18 years old when MC2 Model Management sent her to Epstein's home in Palm Beach. She alleged that MC2's US President at the time, Jeff Fuller, 'knew exactly where' she was going. Fuller denies knowing that she was going to Epstein's house.
From photo shoots to abuse
Roza said that after doing multiple photo shoots at Epstein's home, she was employed as an assistant to the convicted sex offender. It was then, she said, that Epstein began raping her.
MC2 has continually denied any involvement with Epstein, but some of the Epstein files showed that he donated $1,000,000 to the modelling agency in 2005.
Agency accountability
'My agency's job was to protect me, and they failed. In fact, they put me in danger. And for that, they should be held accountable,' Roza said.
Fuller, who now runs another modelling agency called The Source Models, has not addressed Roza's allegations. He previously said he did not know she was being abused.
Recruitment after 2008 conviction
Earlier this year, it was revealed that 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' whom 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 models from Europe and Russia. Once inside his orbit, the women said they were coerced into performing massages that escalated into sexual demands. Several people 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 said 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.'
