Epstein Survivor Says Modeling Debt Trapped Her in Years of Abuse as DOJ Exposed Her Private Records
Roza Gillis says she arrived in America as an indebted teenage model chasing a career. Instead, she entered Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit, where she says financial pressure, immigration vulnerability and institutional indifference allowed the convicted sex offender to abuse her for years.
A former international model is speaking publicly about how she says Jeffrey Epstein’s network exploited her financial desperation, immigration status and trust, beginning while Epstein was supposedly serving a jail sentence under Palm Beach County’s notoriously permissive work-release program.
In an interview with CNN, Roza Gillis, now a four time national CrossFit champion and gym owner, described arriving in New York City from Uzbekistan at 18 years old after signing with MC Squared, a modeling agency founded by longtime Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel. What initially appeared to be an opportunity quickly became a financial trap.
Gillis said the agency charged her for housing, rent and immigration-related expenses, leaving her more than $10,000 in debt while she struggled to secure enough modeling work to pay it back. With limited English, an uncertain visa situation and no established support system in the United States, she became dependent on the people controlling her employment and living arrangements. That vulnerability, she said, ultimately led her directly to Epstein.
A Modeling Opportunity Became an Epstein Job
Gillis told CNN that she was sent to Palm Beach County in 2009 under the impression that she would participate in modeling shoots at Epstein’s Florida estate. Epstein allegedly told her that he had invested approximately $1 million in the modeling agency and offered her work answering telephones for an organization he called the “Florida Science Foundation.”
Gillis said she did not initially understand that Epstein was a registered sex offender who was serving an 18 month county jail sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to state charges involving prostitution and a minor.
Epstein was permitted to leave jail for extensive periods under a controversial work release arrangement that allowed him to spend much of the week at his private office. The unusually favorable treatment later became a central example of how wealth and connections insulated Epstein from the consequences of his conduct.
Federal prosecutors would charge Epstein again in 2019 with sex trafficking minors and conspiracy, alleging that he sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls at his properties in New York and Florida. Epstein died in federal custody before the case could proceed to trial. (Department of Justice)
Gillis Describes First Assault During Epstein’s Work Release
During her first weekend working at Epstein’s office, Gillis said another woman instructed her to massage his feet. She recalled noticing an electronic monitoring device around Epstein’s ankle but did not yet understand why he was wearing it.
According to Gillis, Epstein then ordered her to remove her shirt. She said another woman began unbuttoning her blouse and removed her bra before Epstein groped her. Gillis described freezing during the assault, overwhelmed by shock and confusion. Her account illustrates how Epstein’s operation allegedly relied on more than physical force. Victims and survivors have repeatedly described a system built around grooming, normalized boundary violations, economic dependence and women who helped facilitate access to other vulnerable young people. Gillis said the abuse did not end with that first encounter. It continued for years across Florida and New York, she told CNN.
Uniformed Visitor Reinforced Belief That No One Would Help
One of the most disturbing moments in Gillis’ account involved a man wearing a sheriff’s uniform who visited Epstein while the financier was on work release. Gillis said she watched the uniformed man talk and laugh with Epstein rather than question what was happening around him.
For Gillis, the encounter sent a devastating message: Epstein was not afraid of authorities, and the people who were supposed to protect vulnerable individuals appeared comfortable in his presence. She said that moment contributed to her belief that reporting the abuse would accomplish nothing.
The Palm Beach County work release arrangement has faced years of criticism because Epstein was allowed extensive freedom despite being incarcerated for an offense involving a minor. His treatment stood in sharp contrast to the restrictions normally placed on county inmates, especially registered sex offenders.
Survivor Says Desperation Led to Thoughts of Self-Destruction
Gillis described becoming so desperate to stop Epstein that she considered deliberately contracting a sexually transmitted infection in hopes of passing it to him. The disclosure reflects the extreme sense of powerlessness she experienced, according to her interview. Rather than believing law enforcement, the modeling industry or another authority would intervene, she began imagining ways to make herself physically inaccessible to Epstein, even at grave personal cost.
At the same time, she said, her distress was becoming increasingly visible. Gillis recalled drinking heavily, losing weight, losing hair and engaging in self harm. Yet she said the people around her at the modeling agency failed to intervene or ask meaningful questions about what was happening. Former MC Squared president Jeff Fuller told CNN that he did not witness abuse at the agency. Brunel, the agency’s founder, was later accused by multiple women of sexual assault and of procuring young women for Epstein. Brunel denied wrongdoing before his death in a French jail in 2022 while facing criminal proceedings.
DOJ Release Exposed Survivor’s Identity
Years after Gillis rebuilt her life, she said the federal government failed her again. The Department of Justice released millions of pages of Epstein related material in 2026 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. DOJ said the production included more than 3 million newly published pages, along with thousands of videos and approximately 180,000 images.
The department said more than 500 attorneys and reviewers participated in the effort and that additional safeguards were used to prevent the release of unredacted victim identifying information. Despite those assurances, Gillis told CNN that the government published her private emails and correspondence without properly concealing her identity.
The Justice Department’s own Epstein document portal acknowledges that, because of the enormous volume of material, some files may inadvertently contain nonpublic personally identifiable information or other sensitive material. The department asks people who discover improperly disclosed information to report it for removal. (Department of Justice)
For Gillis, however, the damage was already done. After years of deciding when and how to discuss her trauma, she said the government stripped away her ability to control her own story. That failure raises a central contradiction in the government’s Epstein file release: the public has a legitimate interest in understanding who enabled Epstein, how authorities failed and whether powerful associates escaped scrutiny, but transparency should not come at the cost of exposing the people he abused. Victims are not evidence to be carelessly dumped onto the internet.
From Epstein Survivor to CrossFit Champion
Gillis eventually left Epstein’s orbit and moved to the Midwest, where she rebuilt her life. She met her husband, Pat, and now co-owns a gym in Madison, Wisconsin. Fitness became more than a profession; it became part of how she reclaimed control over her body and redirected her experience toward helping others. Gillis went on to become a four time national CrossFit champion.
She now works with women, children and fellow survivors, using physical training to help others develop confidence, strength and a sense of personal agency. Her decision to speak publicly was not simply about recounting what Epstein did. It was also about exposing the conditions that allowed him to keep doing it. Those conditions included foreign teenagers burdened with debt, opaque modeling arrangements, precarious immigration status, adults who ignored obvious signs of trauma and government institutions that repeatedly failed to act.
Epstein’s Crimes Required a Network of Silence
Epstein’s abuse was often discussed as the work of one wealthy predator, but survivor testimony has repeatedly demonstrated that his access depended on a much broader ecosystem. Recruiters brought young women into his orbit. Employees managed schedules and travel. Business associates provided legitimacy. Social contacts treated him as a respected financier. Authorities granted him extraordinary privileges even after his conviction.
The system worked because responsibility was constantly dispersed. Each participant could claim not to know the full picture. Each institution could insist it only handled one narrow part of the relationship. Each adult could look away while vulnerable girls and young women absorbed the consequences.
Gillis’ account challenges that excuse. Her debt was visible. Her deterioration was visible. Epstein’s criminal status was known. His ankle monitor was physically present. Uniformed officials entered his workplace. Yet the abuse continued.
A Survivor Demands More Than Disclosure
Gillis said she is sharing her story to help people recognize exploitation before it escalates and to encourage greater protection for immigrants and other vulnerable individuals who may be isolated from family, financially dependent or unfamiliar with American institutions.
Her story is also a warning about what justice cannot become. The government cannot claim transparency while negligently exposing survivors. Modeling agencies cannot celebrate international opportunity while trapping young workers in debt. Law enforcement cannot insist the system functioned when a convicted sex offender was permitted to continue operating from a private office.
Epstein’s death ended the possibility of a federal trial against him. It did not end the public obligation to examine the network that protected him or the institutions that failed those he abused. For Gillis, speaking publicly is an act of reclamation, taking back a story that Epstein controlled during the abuse and that the government later exposed without her consent. Her account forces the focus back where it belongs: not on the famous men who crossed Epstein’s path, but on the women who survived him and are still demanding that the institutions surrounding his crimes finally tell the truth.
