{"id":2885,"date":"2026-05-21T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegorelocationnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/they-were-underage-girls-how-epstein-brought-victims-from-brazil-to-palm-beach\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:32:08","slug":"they-were-underage-girls-how-epstein-brought-victims-from-brazil-to-palm-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegorelocationnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/they-were-underage-girls-how-epstein-brought-victims-from-brazil-to-palm-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They were underage girls\u2019: How Epstein brought victims from Brazil to Palm Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While on the hunt for young women and underage girls, Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly turned to Brazil. He lured girls as young as 13 with promises of lucrative modeling work and other enticements to entrap them into sexual servitude, according to a Miami Herald investigation based on the millions of pages of records released earlier this year by the U.S. Justice Department.<\/p>

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The disgraced financier worked with model scouts \u2014 including Epstein\u2019s former business partner Jean-Luc Brunel \u2014 to recruit the girls, often from small towns and poor families. To woo them, he would shower them with gifts like luxury handbags and secure appointments with top hairdressers like celebrity stylist Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fekkai.<\/p>

In the early 2000s, Epstein would jet down to the South American nation, attending modeling competitions and keeping up with the hottest Brazilian plastic surgeons to handle nips-and-tucks on his prospects. He owned an apartment in the upscale Vila Ol\u00edmpia neighborhood of S\u00e3o Paulo and allegedly invited women to luxury hotels in the city, asking them to disrobe in front of him.<\/p>

At the heart of Epstein\u2019s recruiting operation were Brunel and his agency, Karin Models of America. The two men later used Brunel\u2019s MC2 Model Management that had a prominent branch in Miami Beach.<\/p>

But bringing in the women and girls was a tricky business, requiring an employer to sponsor visas. Brunel\u2019s agencies applied for the visas on behalf of the women, claiming that they were going to work in the United States. Epstein would then foot the legal bills \u2014 several thousand dollars \u2014 for each applicant.<\/p>

In one instance, Brunel brought over four girls from the same Brazilian agency to Epstein, according to a deposition given by one of Brunel\u2019s former bookkeepers, Maritza Vazquez. Two of them were aged 13 to 15. She could not recall the agency\u2019s name.<\/p>

Vazquez had previously told the Herald that some of the women the agency managed never actually worked as models but were instead sent to parties Epstein hosted at his Palm Beach and Manhattan mansions.<\/p>

In the mid-2010s, Epstein also explored the possibility of purchasing a Brazilian modeling agency himself, in partnership with musician and model scout Ramsey Elkholy.<\/p>

\u201c[M]aybe just buy Brazil for a couple hundred k [sic], that will insure a steady stream of punani,\u201d Elkholy wrote in a December 2016 email to Epstein, using the Jamaican patois slang for \u201cvagina.\u201d<\/p>

The Herald sent questions to Elkholy via his attorneys but did not receive a response.<\/p>

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The Herald was able to identify several women who were recruited into Epstein\u2019s network but is not revealing their identities because some were minors at the time and possibly his victims.<\/p>

Earlier this year, Brazilian prosecutors launched an investigation into Epstein\u2019s activities in the country, though details are currently under seal. The prosecutors confirmed that while they want to speak to the women, they are not the targets of the probe.<\/p>

Catwalk to hell<\/h2>

Brunel would often drive the women he recruited to Epstein\u2019s properties, his accountant Vazquez said in a deposition in 2010. The deposition was part of a civil suit one of Epstein\u2019s victims had filed against him two years prior.<\/p>

She alleged that Epstein and Brunel \u2060\u2014 who died in French custody in 2022 while under investigation for rape and trafficking women to Epstein \u2060\u2014 would travel to Brazil, where they would solicit sex workers.<\/p>

\u201cThey were underage girls,\u201d she said. \u201cLike, 16, 17, 18.\u201d<\/p>

In 2004, Brunel founded and judged the inaugural Models New Generation competition, records reviewed by the Herald show. The contest, held that year in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, had dozens of participants from across the world.<\/p>