A teenage girl from Eastern Europe steps off a plane in Miami, eyes wide with dreams of catwalk fame and big-city glamour—only to be funneled straight into the glossy facade of MC2 Model Management, the agency Jean-Luc Brunel founded in 2005 with a $1 million lifeline from Jeffrey Epstein. Behind the promises of modeling contracts and visas lay chilling accusations: MC2 allegedly served as a cover to conceal the recruitment and trafficking of underage girls, luring vulnerable young models with career hopes before supplying them to Epstein’s sex-trafficking network for abuse. Virginia Giuffre and other survivors have claimed Brunel “farmed out” dozens of minors—some as young as 12—under the guise of legitimate work, with Epstein’s funding enabling the operation across New York and Miami offices. The agency dissolved in 2019 amid mounting scrutiny, but with Brunel dead by suicide before facing trial and key enablers still silent, the question lingers: how many more girls were hidden in plain sight within the fashion world’s glittering machine?
A teenage girl from Eastern Europe steps off a plane in Miami, eyes wide with dreams of catwalk fame and big-city glamour—only to be funneled straight into the glossy facade of MC2 Model Management, the agency Jean-Luc Brunel founded in 2005 with a $1 million lifeline from Jeffrey Epstein. Behind the promises of modeling contracts and visas lay chilling accusations: MC2 allegedly served as a cover to conceal the recruitment and trafficking of underage girls, luring vulnerable young models with career hopes before supplying them to Epstein’s sex-trafficking network for abuse. Virginia Giuffre and other survivors have claimed Brunel “farmed out” dozens of minors—some as young as 12—under the guise of legitimate work, with Epstein’s funding enabling the operation across New York and Miami offices. The agency dissolved in 2019 amid mounting scrutiny, but with Brunel dead by suicide before facing trial and key enablers still silent, the full scale of exploitation hidden within the fashion industry remains a haunting shadow.
Jean-Luc Brunel, a veteran French model scout who had long dominated agencies like Karin Models, launched MC2 Model Management in 2005, transforming the U.S. arm of Karin into a new boutique firm with offices in New York and Miami. Court documents and investigations revealed Epstein provided crucial financial backing—up to a $1 million line of credit, as confirmed by MC2’s former bookkeeper Maritza Vasquez in a 2010 deposition. Epstein reportedly covered visa costs and other expenses for models imported to the U.S., creating a pipeline that appeared legitimate on the surface.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, alleged in unsealed court filings from her 2015 defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell that Brunel used MC2 to bring teenage girls—often from Eastern Europe and South America—to America on model visas. She claimed Brunel then “farmed out” these minors to Epstein and others for sexual exploitation, feeding what she described as Epstein and Maxwell’s “strong appetite” for sex with underage girls. Giuffre stated Epstein boasted of having slept with over a thousand women supplied by Brunel, and she accused Brunel of personally abusing her multiple times at Epstein’s properties.
Other survivors and media investigations echoed these claims. Reports from The Miami Herald and The Guardian detailed how MC2 targeted aspiring models from vulnerable backgrounds, promising stardom while housing them in controlled environments. French authorities, probing Epstein’s European connections after his 2019 arrest, arrested Brunel in December 2020 at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport. He faced charges of rape of minors over 15, sexual harassment, and aggravated human trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation. Prosecutors suspected him of assaulting victims and aiding Epstein by recruiting, transporting, and housing young women and girls.
Brunel denied all allegations throughout. In February 2022, while detained in Paris’s La Santé Prison awaiting trial, he was found hanged in his cell at age 75, ruled a suicide—mirroring Epstein’s 2019 death and cutting short any potential testimony or confessions.
MC2 quietly dissolved on September 27, 2019, as scrutiny intensified following Epstein’s charges. The agency’s client list had included major retailers like Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue, underscoring how deeply the fashion world intertwined with the alleged scheme. Though Brunel’s death closed one avenue of accountability, survivors’ testimonies continue to highlight systemic failures: how ambition and glamour masked predation, how powerful figures exploited vulnerable teens, and how complicity stretched across borders and industries. The stories of those girls who arrived full of hope only to encounter exploitation demand remembrance and reform, ensuring such hidden horrors are no longer tolerated behind the industry’s polished veneer.
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