- Former Italian model Elisabetta Tai told The New York Post that she visited convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan residence in 2004, when she was 21 and escaped after she said the wealthy financier stripped naked and asked her to give him a massage with a vibrating sex toy.
- Tai’s then-booker told her Epstein was “in charge of Victoria’s Secret” and that he could get her a modeling gig for the lingerie company’s catalog, according to the former model’s account.
- Epstein had a close relationship with Lex Wexner, the founder and CEO of L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret.
- Wexner also gave Epstein his Manhattan residence, which is estimated to be worth $77 million.
- Visit INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.
A former Italian model said in an interview with The New York Post that Jeffrey Epstein tried to coerce her into sex acts in 2004 when she was 21.
The wealthy financier and convicted sex offender is facing federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy that allegedly occurred between 2002 and 2005, according to the federal indictment. His mysterious legacy has begun to unravel in the week since his arrest.
Now, former model Elisabetta Tai told the Post that her booker gave her the address for Epstein’s Manhattan residence a month after her arrival to the US, noting that Epstein was “in charge of Victoria’s Secret.”
Tai said her booker told her that Epstein would be able to get her a gig modeling for the lingerie company’s catalog, and said that he was “one of the most important people in modeling” who could change Tai’s life.
Read more: Here's how Jeffrey Epstein may have acquired a $77 million Upper East Side townhouse for $0
Upon arriving at Epstein's $77 million Upper East Side townhouse in 2004, Tai told The Post she saw other models walking around, and a woman who she identified as looking like Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's reported former girlfriend and a British socialite accused of recruiting underage women for his sex trafficking operation, took Tai to Epstein's office.
Tai, who The Post said spoke in "halting English," talked to Epstein about her modeling experience for a while before he stripped naked and laid on a massage chair next to his desk. Tai said Epstein asked her to approach him, and then he handed her a vibrator.
At that point, Tai said she "froze," then "grabbed the vibrator and threw it at his head." Tai ran out of the room, but before exiting the residence she said the woman who looked like Maxwell grabbed her and told her she "couldn't just leave" because Epstein was "important" and "a friend of President Clinton."
Tai told The Post that she was too frightened to tell anyone what allegedly happened to her in Epstein's residence until the most recent reports emerged from other women who have accused Epstein of harassing, coercing, trafficking, and assaulting them.
After her run-in with Epstein, Tai returned to Italy, changed "for life" from the encounter. She went on to take a few more modeling jobs in her home country.
"It changed me for life," Tai told The Post. "I thought I lived in a hateful world. It was shocking to realize that if I wanted to be a model in America, I was expected to work as a prostitute."
Epstein had a long and fruitful relationship with Lex Wexner, the founder and CEO of L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret. Not only is Wexner Epstein's only confirmed client, but the L Brands CEO allowed Epstein to take an active role in his company alongside managing his fortune.
A spokesperson of Wexner has since said that the two cut ties, but before then, Epstein moved into his Manhattan residence that was bought by Wexner for $13.2 million in 1989. Wexner transferred to the property to Epstein for $0 after he moved to Ohio in 1996. The deed for the property was transferred in 2011 to Epstein's LLC on his private island in the Virgin Islands.
Apart from Tai, The Post also talked to an anonymous former Manhattan-based modeling agent who said Epstein used his role in Wexner's company to traffic underage girls by portraying himself as "the back door" of Victoria's Secret. The former agent told The Post that "some of those girls got in" to modeling contracts with the lingerie company, but only through media campaigns and catalogs, as opposed to the televised fashion show.
Another anonymous Manhattan-based modeling entrepreneur told The Post that Epstein and Maxwell were "a constant fixture" at Victoria's Secret events.
- Read more:
- The famous connections of Jeffrey Epstein, the elite wealth manager charged with sex trafficking young girls
- Here are the most important things about wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged sex-trafficking operation
- Jeffrey Epstein had a bizarre hiring practice for his all-female executive team, which worked for him 24 hours a day
- Meet Jeffrey Epstein, the financier arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking who's rubbed elbows with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Kevin Spacey