Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly targeted Brazil as a recruitment ground for young women and underage girls, using modeling opportunities, travel, luxury gifts, salon appointments, and the promise of access to fashion-world connections as bait. The Miami Herald’s review of newly released DOJ Epstein files describes a pipeline involving model scouts, including Epstein’s longtime associate Jean-Luc Brunel, whose agencies helped bring women and girls into the United States under modeling-related visa arrangements while Epstein paid legal costs. The records describe girls as young as 13 being brought into Epstein’s orbit, with one former bookkeeper for Brunel saying that some of the women managed by the agency did not actually work as models but were instead sent to parties at Epstein’s Palm Beach and Manhattan homes. The investigation also places Epstein in Brazil itself, where he owned an apartment in São Paulo, attended modeling events, tracked plastic surgeons, and allegedly invited women to luxury hotels where he asked them to undress.

The article also details how Epstein’s Brazil-linked recruiting did not end with Brunel. In 2016, musician and model scout Ramsey Elkholy floated the idea of buying into Brazilian modeling agencies and fashion-media properties as a way to secure access to “younger girls” and “fresh faces,” using crude language that made the purpose of the plan difficult to mistake. Records show Epstein looked into the finances of the proposed agency and magazine deals, though it remains unclear whether he invested. The broader picture is that Brazil was not some incidental location in Epstein’s network; it appears to have been treated as a strategic source of vulnerable young women and girls, especially those from poor families or small towns who could be tempted with modeling dreams, travel, gifts, and the illusion of elite opportunity. Brazilian prosecutors have now opened an investigation into Epstein’s activities in the country, with the women identified as potential victims or witnesses rather than targets.

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source:

How Jeffrey Epstein schemed to target young Brazilian women | Miami Herald