A French professional model, who had arranged for more than a decade to meet the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was found dead at his home near Paris on Monday.
Danielle Siad’s body was found in his home in Colombes, a suburb of the French capital, Marie-Céline Loris, deputy prosecutor at the Nanterre Judicial Court, told CNN in a statement on Wednesday.
An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.
CNN’s Katie Polglaz recently interviewed Siad, who said he had no reason to believe that two women he recommended to Epstein — and who told CNN that Epstein abused them — were harmed by Epstein.
Model scout Daniel Siad speaks to CNN.
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Even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex crimes, modeling industry insiders like Siad continued to pursue business ventures with him, invited him to fashion events, and allowed him to be associated with their companies.
Siad said Epstein assured him that he paid for his crimes and that “this would never happen to anyone” to which Siad referred.
“I trusted him and thought this guy was a professional,” he told CNN in an interview published in June. “I never heard anything from anyone I introduced to who told me their situation was bad. I thought this guy was a professional.”
Siad said he believed Epstein was a manager of Victoria’s Secret and the MC2 modeling agency. CNN found no evidence to support this claim.
“Very old”
Files released by the Justice Department show that Epstein paid tens of thousands of dollars to Siad.
Siad wrote in one of the messages: “A nice French girl in Marrakesh… She said she would be happy to meet you.”
Siad separately said that Epstein asked him for help finding an assistant.
In a 2018 email, Siad wrote that he was looking for a “good-looking young associate” for Epstein.
In another message, Siad sent Epstein a photo of a woman, describing her as “very polite” and with “potential” to be a “model” or “assistant.”
“Very old,” Epstein replied.
Siad repeatedly sent Epstein photos of young women he met during his travels, some of them in provocative positions, according to Justice Department filings.
CNN affiliate BFMTV reported that Siad’s name appears more than 2,000 times in the Justice Department’s Epstein files.
Svetlana Pozedeva, a Russian-born model, previously told CNN that Siad introduced her to Epstein, and that the disgraced financier abused her.
“If it weren’t for him, my life would have developed completely differently,” Bogidayeva told CNN on Wednesday. She said Siad’s death meant he could not be held accountable. “I wanted justice, to have some kind of investigation, to get some closure,” she said.
Siyad’s lawyer, Minya Arab Tigrin, said in a statement on Wednesday that his client was willing to “subject himself to the harsh media spotlight… to see the truth come to light.”
“We have to wait for the results of the autopsy to confirm whether his body simply surrendered,” Arab Tigrin said, adding that his client is innocent and has not been tried or “officially involved in any legal proceedings.”
Epstein’s ties to the modeling industry are part of ongoing investigations, which include a criminal investigation launched this year in Paris to review information related to Siad, according to the city’s public prosecutor.
Siad was also facing accusations of abuse. A model also accused him of rape when she was working in France in 1990. Siad denied the accusation.
CNN’s Katie Polglasi, Barbara Arvanitidis, Elena Buder Kim, Curt Devine and Isabelle Chapman contributed reporting.
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