The Recruitment Problem
Running a continuing trafficking enterprise required a steady supply of victims. Unlike isolated acts of sexual violence, Epstein’s operation involved the regular introduction of new young women and girls into a system of grooming and abuse. This required organized recruitment infrastructure — not spontaneous encounters. Understanding how victims were found illuminates both the sophistication and the deliberateness of the operation.
Professional Recruiters
The most direct recruitment method involved paying individuals to find and bring young women to Epstein. Ghislaine Maxwell played a central recruitment role personally, but the operation also employed and compensated individuals who functioned as professional talent scouts or introducers.
Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, and Nadia Marcinkova were among those later named in court proceedings as having participated in various aspects of the recruitment or management of victims. Recruiters were typically compensated per successful introduction and were sometimes recruited from the pool of prior victims — a grooming escalation pattern documented in both academic literature on trafficking and the specific Epstein record.
Modeling Agency Connections
Epstein and Maxwell used the legitimacy of the modeling industry as a primary recruitment lever. Young women aspiring to modeling careers were particularly vulnerable — they had been taught to accept that older men in positions of power could advance their careers and that physical availability was a routine professional expectation.
MC2 Model Management, a modeling agency founded with Epstein funding and run by Jean-Luc Brunel, was identified as a key recruitment front. Brunel was alleged to have used the agency to find young women in Eastern Europe, South America, and elsewhere for contact with Epstein. Brunel was arrested in France and died in custody in 2022 before trial.
The Wexner Network Dimension
Leslie Wexner’s business empire — particularly Victoria’s Secret — provided indirect but significant recruitment connectivity. Victoria’s Secret’s modeling operations intersected with the world of young women seeking modeling and entertainment careers. Epstein’s access to the Wexner social circle provided entree into a network of fashion, retail, and entertainment figures who could provide referrals and introductions.
Several victims described being introduced to Epstein or Maxwell through connections that derived ultimately from the Wexner enterprise’s social orbit.
Local Recruiters in Palm Beach
In Palm Beach specifically, the Palm Beach Police investigation documented that Epstein used local teenagers — sometimes recent victims themselves — to recruit peers. One victim testified that after her initial abuse, she was explicitly asked to find similarly situated young women and bring them to Epstein, and was told she would receive payment for successful introductions.
This peer-to-peer recruitment strategy was particularly effective because it gave the approach an air of social legitimacy: introductions came from trusted peers rather than unknown adults.
School and Community Networks
Victim testimony documented recruitment at shopping malls, schools, and community events in Palm Beach and the surrounding area. Young women from working-class families who showed interest in modeling, entertainment, or simply making money were targeted. The Palm Beach community’s extreme wealth disparity — some of the richest individuals in America living alongside local working-class and immigrant families — created structural vulnerabilities that the recruitment operation exploited.
Scale and Duration
The scale of the operation — with victims later documented in numbers ranging from dozens to potentially hundreds, over decades, in multiple cities and countries — demonstrates that recruitment was an ongoing, systematized activity rather than a series of isolated incidents. The operation adapted over time, expanding to new geographic markets and recruitment channels as Epstein’s international travel increased.