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Daniel Siad’s name appears thousands of times in the Epstein Files
NEED TO KNOW
- Daniel Siad, 69, was found dead at his home near Paris; an autopsy will determine the cause of death
- Siad appears thousands of times in the Epstein Files, often connecting the disgraced financier with models — some of them underage
- Siad was accused of rape by multiple women but denied the allegations
A French modeling scout with close ties to Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead under unclear circumstances.
Daniel Siad, 69, was found dead at his home outside Paris on Monday evening, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office told Reuters and the BBC.
The cause was not immediately apparent and Siad’s body will undergo an autopsy, his attorney Menya Arab-Tigrine tells PEOPLE, but she suspects he may have died from a heart attack — which she partially attributed to unyielding media scrutiny.
“If he died of a heart attack, this unbearable wait, the public disgrace heaped upon him and, by extension, his loved ones, the pressure and anguish he lived with daily, undoubtedly contributed to his death,” Arab-Tigrine said in an email to PEOPLE. “We must await the autopsy results to determine if his body truly gave out.”
An inquiry to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office was not immediately returned.
Siad’s name appears thousands of times in the Epstein Files released by the U.S. Department of Justice. His emails sent to Epstein often discussed his work scouting models across Europe and seemingly referring them — some of whom were minors — to the disgraced financier.
One of the earliest emails in the files attributed to Siad, which he sent to Epstein in April 2009, shows him sending a picture of a 17-year-old Slovakian girl while scouting models in Bratislava. Siad continued communicating with Epstein at least through 2018, the files show.
At least one women victimized by Epstein said she was introduced to him by Siad, per the BBC.
In a CNN interview last month, Siad claimed his work with Epstein was “strictly professional” and that he didn’t “know his private life.”
Siad himself was accused of rape and human trafficking by five women, though he denied the allegations, Reuters reported, citing French media.
“Let us not forget that he was never prosecuted, and therefore never held legally accountable,” Arab-Tigrine said. “He is dead, and he was innocent.”
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Siad is the second French modeling scout closely connected to Epstein to die. In 2022, Jean-Luc Brunel, one of Epstein’s closest associates, was found dead from an apparent suicide in a French jail cell while charged with raping minors.
Epstein was facing sex trafficking charges when he was found dead from an apparent suicide in his jail cell in Manhattan in 2019.
Read the original article on People
