Modeling industry activist calls for inquiry into how agencies 'facilitated Epstein's abuse' [View all]

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The letter describes a power structure in the fashion business that made model agencies “a pipeline through which vulnerable teenagers were regularly delivered to powerful predators” and describes Epstein as “not a rogue outlier, but a beneficiary of – and a participant in – this system”.

Citing public records, survivor testimony, investigative reporting, and entries in the US Department of Justice’s Epstein files releases, the letter states, “indicate that Epstein’s trafficking operation intersected directly with modeling agencies and executives who introduced him to young women and girls and facilitated his access to potential victims”.

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Key provisions of the law include holding agencies liable for sending models to known abusers, Ziff said “by everything that is coming to light now” and limits on fees and expenses that effectively held models in debt to their agencies who would then be “put in the position of being sent to dinners with businessmen” just to be fed.

“There was a lot of questionable and even criminal behavior that had been normalized by the business,” she said. “I wouldn’t have spent over a decade doing this work if I had not experienced that kind of abuse myself. It’s remarkable that it’s taken this long for people to take it seriously.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/29/modeling-industry-activist-inquiry-epstein-files-sara-ziff