Photos of Dutch models offered to Epstein

In the recently released part of the Epstein files, his name appears more than a thousand times. Model scout Daniel Siad, a Swede with Algerian roots who lives in France, was a key figure in the network surrounding Epstein. On the street and at all kinds of events he approached girls and women, whom he promised to help with their modeling career. He needed photos for that, the recruiter said. He then forwarded it to Epstein. If he ‘approved’ the photos, Siad tried to set up a meeting.

The Epstein documents show that Siad systematically offered girls to the billionaire. He thus played an important role in Epstein’s sexual crimes, of which hundreds of girls and women are believed to have been victims. The French public prosecutor opened a criminal investigation into Siad last week, following a rape that allegedly took place in the 1990s.

The research editors found the names of five Dutch models who were approached by Siad from 2009 to 2017. Photos of them were also forwarded. He tried to set up a Skype call with Epstein with a 19- and a 20-year-old girl to introduce them to the billionaire. It is unclear whether that Skype conversation actually took place. The models don’t want to say anything about it. One of them does not want to respond, another denies in a short written response that she has met Siad.

Two other women confirm to RTL News that they have been in contact with Siad. They only found out after the publication of the Epstein files that their photos had been forwarded to the billionaire. Their names will not be published for privacy reasons. The identity of a fifth model, ‘A cute girl from Holland’, could not be determined with certainty.

Golden mountains

One of the models was approached by Siad in Cape Town in 2014. She was 29 at the time. She remembers it vaguely, she says on the phone. “He said I could work in America, and I really wanted to. Then he asked if I could send photos. Apparently he sent them.”

She was immediately hesitant, the woman says. “He promised mountains of gold, it all seemed too good to be true.” Only now that Siad’s emails have been revealed has she discovered that her photos ended up with Epstein. “That’s a very unpleasant surprise.” Another model was approached by Siad in 2009 as a 21-year-old in Paris. She is shocked when she hears that her name appears in the Epstein files, she says on the phone.

The emails that Siad sent to Epstein provide an idea of ​​his working method. “Hey Jeffrey, here’s a cute girl I met in Paris this week,” he wrote, for example, about a Dutch girl he met at the Louvre in Paris. About another he wrote: “Here are the photos of a new model (…). She is a very funny girl, I will send you the video I made.”

Siad told the girls that he would arrange for them to work in New York, or that he could arrange a contract with a major modeling agency. “These are two girls who want to come to New York,” he wrote to Epstein in 2017 about two Dutch models. “One is nineteen, the other is twenty.” Epstein replied: “More photos?” It is quite possible that Siad actually tried to lure more than five Dutch models to Epstein. Millions of pages from the Epstein files have not yet been published.

Siad had multiple companies and telephone numbers, in both Paris and Geneva. He operated under different names. He introduced himself as Daniel Goldberg to one of the women RTL Nieuws spoke to. He signed an email in which he sent his details in order to receive a sum of money with Daniel Amar.

The Epstein recruiter traveled all over the world. He received 3,000 euros per month for his work, according to one of the emails. If he also declares travel expenses, 1,300 euros for a trip to Latvia, this leads to an altercation with another of Epstein’s accomplices, the French Jean-Luc Brunel.

“I have transferred your salary for two months,” Brunel emails. “A big investment. You’ve been away for four days, and I don’t have one model in New York.” Brunel was also a model scout himself. In 2022, he committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial for rape of minors.

Raped in a garden shed

Siad himself has also recently been charged with rape. The Swedish Ebba Karlsson met him in 1990 in Stockholm. “He said he thought I was so beautiful and could help me with a modeling career in France,” says Karlsson, who now lives in the US, on the phone. Once in France, things quickly go wrong. “He took me to Monaco, but there turned out to be no work there. Then we went to a villa in Cannes, but it was closed. He then raped me in the garden house by the pool.”

For 36 years, Karlsson’s rapist seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Until a Swedish journalist sent her a photo two weeks ago, found after the publication of the Epstein files. “That was him. I felt sick as soon as I saw him.” Karlsson filed a report with the French police last week.

The French news channel FranceInfo tracked down Siad in Paris last week and confronted him in the cafe where he was sitting. The model scout violently pushed the camera away from him. On the phone, he later claimed to have known nothing of Epstein’s actions. “A gentleman,” Siad called the billionaire. “I have never been in a situation where I could see that he was dangerous.”