Agent begged Epstein to have sex with model, emails show

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Abdirahim Saeed,BBC Arabicand

Ben King, business correspondent

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Ramsey Elkholy and Jeffrey Epstein corresponded for almost a decade about models

A US-based model agent introduced women as young as 18 to Jeffrey Epstein and pleaded with him to have sex with a model he knew, according to emails.

Ramsey Elkholy sent the financier hundreds of emails over almost a decade, discussing the women’s bodies and their attitudes to sex, and suggested he and Epstein could meet more women by investing in fashion and modelling businesses in Brazil.

In one 2011 exchange, Elkholy described a woman in her 20s who was “desperate for cash” and said: “Dear Jeffrey PLEASE just try her in bed.”

Elkholy told the BBC he regretted the language in some emails and his association with Epstein, and he had not been aware the financier had been abusing women.

Elkholy now describes himself as an anthropologist and musician, founder of the band Monotronic, but in the 2010s he was working as a model agent.

The files recently released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) suggest he conducted a correspondence with Epstein from at least 2009 until shortly before the financier’s death in 2019, much of which revolved around access to female models.

The emails shed further light on how Epstein cultivated extensive contacts in the international modelling industry, some of which he then used to access women and girls. Models were among those Epstein abused, which the FBI has estimated may total 1,000 women and girls.

In the messages, Elkholy appeared to discuss setting up meetings for models with Epstein’s contacts in the fashion industry, including at lingerie chain Victoria’s Secret - then owned by Epstein’s biggest client, Les Wexner - and the Vera Wang label.

The files also suggest Elkholy was in touch with the French model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a contact of Epstein’s accused by Brazilian women who spoke to the BBC of recruiting girls for Epstein to sexually exploit.

Brunel was found dead in his Paris prison cell in 2022, while being investigated on suspicion of the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation.

‘You’re a solid person Jeffrey’

Elkholy told the BBC he had not been part of Epstein’s inner circle. A search for his surname on the DOJ website returns over 2,000 results, though many of those are duplicates, and Elkholy said the files show he only met Epstein 10-12 times over a 10-year period.

The agent wrote an email to Epstein in 2009, a few months after the financier had been released from jail on a charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor, saying: “I don’t need to tell you that I also value your friendship. The reason I never ask for anything in return for introducing you to models is because I consider it more of a favor and I know that you are also good for favors.”

He added: “You’re a solid person Jeffrey and that means the world to me.”

Two days after the agent had told Epstein about the woman who was “desperate for cash”, Elkholy said he hoped the financier was “getting some mileage” out of the woman’s situation “being all alone” in New York.

Epstein replied with a single word - “zero” - and a few days later Elkholy wrote again: “Jeffrey PLEASE just try her in bed… I really need that so I can feel whole about all this because she’s such a pain in the ass. I also think it would be good to get her to know what it is like to get really [expletive].”

Elkholy claims he sent the email with the woman’s permission.

The BBC has seen no references to girls under the age of 18 in connection with Elkholy.

In a 2010 message, Elkholy proposed that Epstein should meet a “gorgeous” 18-year-old Russian college student he ran into in a shop. “I think you will like her,” he wrote. A reply from Epstein’s assistant said he did want to meet her.

Elkholy told the BBC that he introduced the young woman to Epstein in the hope he would help her find modelling opportunities.

Several other women Elkholy discussed were 19.

Elkholy seemed to be aware of Epstein’s predilection for younger women. An email dated 2009 from Elkholy mentioned a “very hot blonde”, saying: “I know 23 is on the old side for you.” Epstein was 56 at the time.

A number of Elkholy’s messages to Epstein about women discussed their bodies and their attitude to sex. One is described as a “business-minded sex machine”.

In 2010, Elkholy wrote about a woman who is “19 but a hard core christian, so i don’t think that will work, which is a shame, she’s a 5’11 blonde barbie doll”.

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Ruslana Korshunova visited Epstein’s Caribbean Island two years before her death

The emails also suggest that Elkholy represented the well-known Kazakhstani model Ruslana Korshunova, who visited Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2006, when she was just 18, according to published flight logs.

In 2008, she fell to her death from a ninth-floor balcony in New York, which the authorities ruled was a suicide.

Elkholy told Epstein in 2009 he was in Luxembourg handling documents relating to “Ruslana’s Estate”.

‘Fly these girls to wherever’

Elkholy remained a regular traveller, emailing Epstein from Thailand, Latvia, Prague and Miami. In 2016, he visited Brazil, and pitched a number of possible investments to Epstein, including modelling agencies, magazines and a competition.

Suggesting an investment in one agency, he said in an email that he assumed Epstein was “more interested in the access” to women, using an emoji instead of the word “women”.

For one modelling contest idea, he said, “200,000 girls” would participate across dozens of cities over a period of nine months.

He said he liked this idea for Epstein because the winner was usually “another overlooked girl” and he would be able to “fly these girls to wherever” in the US, Paris or the Caribbean.

In the same year, Elkholy flagged to Epstein that a Brazilian fashion magazine was up for sale and suggested that they could potentially buy it together.

“You could easily have 20-30 girls trying for the cover each month. Just an idea,” Elkholy added in an email.

Epstein was not keen and he also advised Elkholy not to invest in the US launch of a French magazine.

Elkholy’s response was to lament “all the girls” he would have had sex with if they had gone ahead. He suggested he would instead buy the Brazilian edition “for a couple hundred k” to ensure “a steady stream” of women, referring to them by using an offensive slang term for female genitals.

Elkholy’s correspondence with Epstein continued until 2019, when the legal net was already tightening around Epstein for the final time. In their last messages released in the files, the pair were still discussing bringing a Russian woman to the US.

“She will be in London if you want to import her,” Elkholy wrote. Epstein said getting a US visa was difficult.

Elkholy suggested: “maybe she can try for some kind of student visa?” Epstein recommended trying Dubai.

Three months later, Epstein was arrested for the second time.

• ​​If you have information about this story that you would like to share, please email ​​epsteininvestigation@bbc.co.uk

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