“If I had disobeyed my mother and gone to New York, what might have happened to me?” asks Gláucia Fekete.
In 2004, as a 16-year-old living in the Brazilian countryside, she was taking her first steps in the modelling world.
She says French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel visited her family home, to persuade her mother to let her go to a modelling contest in Ecuador. He later killed himself in prison, accused of rape, sexual assault and recruiting girls for the late US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Back then, they didn’t know who Brunel was; they had been introduced by a famous Brazilian scout.
A BBC News Brasil investigation has found evidence that Brunel used modelling agencies linked to him at the time to actively seek out young women and girls from South America for Epstein, and to arrange visas for them to travel to the US.
Another Brazilian woman, who says she had a relationship with Epstein, showed the BBC her US visa. It named one of Brunel’s agencies as her sponsor, even though she says she never did any modelling work for him and the travel documents were arranged solely so that she could visit Epstein.
Gláucia’s mother was suspicious of Brunel, but he seemed “very charming” and eventually she agreed her daughter could go to Ecuador without her. The teenager travelled with Brunel’s team to Guayaquil for the Models New Generation competition. At the time, local newspapers reported that the participants were between 15 and 19 years old.
Gláucia says the competition passed without any major problems, although she grew suspicious when she was not allowed to contact her family.
Another contestant, from Western Europe, who was 16 at the time, remembers how Brunel’s behaviour struck her as odd. She asked not to be named, so we are referring to her as Laura.
“It was weird how he behaved and was always hanging out with the young Brazilian girls… He was behaving like a clown and only hanging out with quite young girls,” she says.
Laura believes that while the competition was “legit” and well organised, “he knew exactly which girls were vulnerable”.
“He seemed to control their finances,” she says. “The girls from Brazil and East European countries seemed to be the prime target.”
Gláucia says that towards the end of the trip, Brunel offered to fly her to New York “to take part in shows” with all expenses paid. At that point they had to contact her mother, Barbara, for permission.
Barbara’s response: “No. Not a chance.
“They were only looking for children, minors,” Barbara says. “Unfortunately they found my daughter.”
She forbade Gláucia from any more involvement in modelling and cut ties with Brunel’s network.
“It really was a narrow escape,” says Gláucia.
In files released by the US government, BBC News Brasil found records showing that Epstein was in Guayaquil on 24 and 25 August 2004, at the same time as the final of the modelling competition. We also saw documents indicating that at least one model under 16 who attended the event flew on Epstein’s plane at least twice in the same year.
Gláucia says that looking back, “without knowing it, I was in the middle of that storm”.
“My mother saved me.”
‘He chose me’
Another Brazilian woman, whom we are calling Ana to protect her identity, says that Brunel and his modelling business were instrumental in facilitating her relationship with Epstein.
Ana was initially recruited by a Brazilian woman in the early 2000s in São Paulo.
Ana’s account, corroborated by documents reviewed by the BBC and cross-checked against US Department of Justice records, shows how Brunel helped to arrange US visas for Brazilians.
Ana says she left her hometown in southern Brazil after being promised modelling opportunities in São Paulo by a woman who was based there.
She says that on arrival, the woman took her documents and told her she now owed money for travel and photos. Ana says she soon realised there was no modelling work.
“She was a madam. Before I knew it, she was pimping me out.”
One of the clients was Jeffrey Epstein, says Ana.
She describes how, a few weeks after her 18th birthday, the woman took her to the home of a prominent businessman in São Paulo. There, she says, she heard him describe Epstein as “the king of the world” and say: “He likes younger girls.”
A few days later, she says she and two other women were sent to a luxury hotel in São Paulo, where Epstein would choose one of them. “He chose me,” she says.
Ana says she went to a room with Epstein, where he asked her to remove her clothes. “His thing was watching me while he touched himself. It was disgusting, but of all evils, the lesser one,” she says.
US Department of Justice files, including emails and flight records, place Epstein in Brazil at that time.
She says he invited her to a party in the city a few days later, which is where she first met Brunel, and the modelling agent soon became instrumental in arranging a US visa for her.
She adds that during the party, Epstein told her that he was going to Paris the next day and that he had already arranged for her to go with him.
