American tycoon Jeffrey Epstein
The newly released emails reveal that Daniel Siad, one of the members of Epstein’s network, had come to Lisbon to recruit Russian models.
New documents released by the United States Department of Justice reveal that Daniel Theyone of the men who recruited models for Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking network, made frequent trips to Lisbon.
According to , in a 2012 email now made public, Siad wrote that he would pay an “reconnaissance trip” to the Portuguese capital where he wanted to “prove to himself and the Russians” his professional worth. “I am paying for my own reconnaissance trip to Lisbon, where I will stay for four days. I would like to prove to myself and the Russians that I am the best”, says the email.
Although the files do not fully clarify the reference to Russia, the documents confirm visits by models from Moscow to Lisbon, as well as exchanges of messages between these women and Epstein. Siad appears mentioned in more than a thousand now declassified documents and is the target of a complaint filed by a Swedish model in France for alleged rape crimesaccusations that he denies.
This is not the first time that Epstein’s relations with Russia have been debated and there are even rumors that the late billionaire was a spy for Moscow. Early rumors, attributed to former British agent Christopher Steele, suggested that Epstein had Russian gang ties in New York since the 1970s, but experts emphasize that this does not amount to espionage. The documents now known refer, in fact, to Epstein’s failed attempts to obtain meetings with Vladimir Putin.
The files reveal, however, requests for favors from members of the Russian elite. In 2015, Epstein reportedly contacted Sergei Belyakov for advice on a alleged blackmail attempt by a woman to a group of businesspeople in New York. Belyakov responded with information designed to pressure or discredit the target, even suggesting barring his entry into the United States.
