SerpApi.Org
Daniel Siad, a French model recruiter who spent over a decade arranging meetings between Jeffrey Epstein and young women, was found dead Monday at his home in a Paris suburb.
He was 69, and the cause of death has not been established.
Marie-Céline Lawrysz, deputy public prosecutor for the Nanterre Judicial Court, confirmed Siad’s death Wednesday to CNN.
Investigators began looking into the cause of death Monday evening, and an autopsy is pending, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Siad’s name appears over 2,000 times in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice.
The documents show that Epstein paid Siad tens of thousands of dollars over the years. They also include messages and photographs of young women Siad found for him, some in suggestive poses, according to the DOJ.
A criminal investigation initiated this year in Paris has been examining information related to Siad, according to the city’s chief prosecutor. Two women whom Siad introduced to Epstein later told CNN that Epstein abused them.
Before his death, Siad told CNN he had no reason to think the women had been harmed. “I trusted him and believed this guy was a professional person,” he said.
Siad also claimed to CNN that he thought Epstein was a casting director for Victoria’s Secret and the modeling agency MC2. CNN found no evidence to support that claim.
In messages within the DOJ files, Siad informed Epstein about a woman in Marrakesh who was willing to meet him. He later stated he was looking for a young assistant on Epstein’s behalf.
In one conversation, Siad sent a photo of a woman he thought had potential as a model or assistant; Epstein replied that she was too old.
Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in 2008. Siad continued to associate with him afterward, even inviting him to fashion events, according to CNN.
Siad faced his own abuse allegations. A model accused him of rape while they were working in France in 1990. He denied the allegation, telling the French network BFMTV in May, “I have never raped anyone in my life.”
One woman who said Siad introduced her to Epstein described the introduction to the BBC as “a complete set-up.”
A former model who gave a deposition in the French investigation in June told the BBC that Siad’s death removes a potential source of information, as investigators never questioned him. She said that too much time has already been wasted.
Siad is not the first model recruiter linked to Epstein to die during a criminal investigation. Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent accused of providing women for Epstein, was arrested in 2020 and found dead in a French prison cell in 2022.
Epstein died in his jail cell in 2019, weeks after his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging, a conclusion that has faced public doubt in the years since.
French authorities have not provided a timeline for Siad’s autopsy results or any further updates in the investigation.
