Epstein-linked modelling scout found dead near Paris

Daniel Siad, a modelling scout accused of recruiting women for Jeffrey Epstein and under investigation in France over rape and other allegations, has been found dead at his home near Paris, French officials said.

Siad, 69, was discovered Monday in Colombes, a north-west suburb of Paris, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office confirmed to the BBC. “An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery,” the office said, adding that an autopsy will be carried out.

His death comes as French prosecutors were examining allegations against him and reviewing material from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Epstein files, declassified earlier this year. Siad’s name appeared thousands of times in those records, according to the BBC; The Guardian reported that he was mentioned in more than 1,000 documents.

Siad had denied wrongdoing. In recent interviews, he said he did not know Epstein was abusing women. “I trusted him, I believed this guy is a professional person,” he told CNN. Speaking to BFMTV in May, after complaints had been filed against him in France, he said: “I have never raped anyone in my life.”

Several women had accused Siad of abuse. The first complaint in France was filed in February, according to the BBC. The Guardian reported that former Swedish model Ebba Karlsson accused Siad of raping her in France after scouting her in Stockholm in 1990, when she was 20. Karlsson, who said she had no interactions with Epstein, filed criminal allegations of rape and human trafficking in Paris earlier this year. Siad’s lawyer, Ménya Arab-Tigrine, told The Guardian at the time that he denied the allegation.

“It’s very frustrating,” Karlsson told AFP after learning of Siad’s death. “He was very close to be arrested. We worked so hard for this, trying to have justice.”

Lawyers for the former model who made the first complaint said they were “stunned” and felt “anger and sadness,” adding that their clients were “now denied a criminal trial.” They also accused the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office of “scandalous” inaction after it said in February that it was opening an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s French accomplices. The BBC said it contacted the prosecutor’s office for comment.

Anne-Claire Le Jeune, who represents six women who had made complaints about Siad, said her clients had been deprived of a crucial step. “My clients found the strength to break a particularly heavy silence, given Daniel Siad’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” she said. “It is deeply regrettable that the slow pace of the investigation resulted in his death before he could be questioned or taken into police custody, thereby depriving the victims of a crucial step in their pursuit of truth and justice.”

The Epstein files show frequent contact between Siad and Epstein over several years. In a 2014 email, Siad compared his work to fishing: “In This busyness I feel like fisherman some time I cache quick, some time no fish.” The Guardian reported that he traveled to places including eastern Europe, Cuba and Sweden while seeking women for modelling work and, in some cases, women he hoped Epstein might want to meet.

In an emailed statement to The Guardian in February, Siad said he believed he had been providing women to Epstein for legitimate model castings in Paris. “The casting time would not last more than 10 minutes,” he wrote. “I always left the place with the models immediately.”

Siad also worked as a scout for Jean-Luc Brunel, the French modelling agent who founded MC2 Model Management with funding from Epstein. Brunel was found hanged in a Paris prison cell in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges including rape of minors, which he denied. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.