Roza Gilles Recounts Sexual Abuse by Jeffrey Epstein

New York. In the summer of 2009, Roza Gilles arrived at her first day of her new job in a tall office building in the center of Palm Beach, Florida. When she arrived, a woman was massaging Jeffrey Epstein's feet.

Gilles, then 18 years old, had recently come to America to build a modeling career. After a fashion event in Uzbekistan, a modeling agent with connections to Epstein had contacted her. After arriving in America, the modeling agency had burdened her with thousands of dollars in debt in the name of visa and rent.

Suffocated by financial problems, Gilles was thinking of returning to Asia, where she had built a successful modeling career in her adolescence. But Epstein offered her a job as a receptionist in his office on weekends to increase her income.

One day, while sitting with Epstein in his office room on the 14th floor, Gilles was asked by the same woman to sit next to her. Epstein extended his feet towards her. During that time, Gilles' attention was drawn to a small device with a blinking light attached to a black plastic strip tied to Epstein's foot. When she asked what it was, Epstein and the woman laughed. Then Epstein ordered her to take off her shirt.

'I was suddenly stunned,' Gilles said, 'Then the woman came closer to me, started unbuttoning my blouse. She took off her blouse, then her bra, and left the room.'

That day, Epstein sexually assaulted Gilles for the first time. Then a series of rape and sexual abuse continued for years. Only after some time did Gilles learn that the device Epstein was wearing was actually an 'ankle monitor' and that he was serving a prison sentence for pimping underage girls.

Gilles is one of the countless women sexually abused by the late Epstein. She has shared her entire experience publicly with CNN for the first time. Her story exposes the reality of the controversial 'plea deal' in Florida in 2008. Under that agreement, Epstein was allowed to spend most of his sentence outside of prison.

That arrangement allowed Epstein to continue sexually abusing young women even while serving his sentence. Foreign models like Gilles also became victims. According to the victims, in some cases, abuse occurred even when an officer from the 'Palm Beach County' 'Sheriff's Office' was present in the adjacent room.

'He did not change his behavior even after being convicted. He was doing all the same activities as before,' Gilles said, 'He had no remorse. What he did to me caused me immense pain. It has left such a deep scar on my life that I can never be completely free from, no matter how hard I try.'

Two other women, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, also said they were sexually abused by Epstein in the office of the Florida Science Foundation. The non-profit organization, established in November 2007, claimed to provide grants for scientific research. According to the women, the 14th-floor office could be easily accessed by elevator, and there was constant movement of people during working days. Mushroom-like white 'white noise' machines were placed in various locations in the office.

According to them, Epstein had a fixed routine for the days he spent there. After having coffee and muffins in the morning, he would complain about not sleeping well at the low-security Palm Beach Stockade jail and would regularly sleep on a futon placed in the conference room.

One woman clearly recalled an incident where Epstein's ankle monitor would beep intermittently, and he would rush out to reactivate it. Even during that period, Epstein's behavior was shameless and fearless. According to the victims, whether at his home in West Palm Beach or his office, he would sometimes sexually abuse even when uniformed police officers were present nearby. Those officers were assigned to monitor Epstein, a registered sex offender.

Police officers who came and went at the Florida Science Foundation office would sit near the entrance. Two women said that those police officers seemed afraid of Epstein. According to them, there was no doubt about who was in charge there; Epstein was the most powerful person.

One incident with a uniformed officer was particularly memorable for Gilles. In the summer of 2009, she used to go to Epstein's luxurious house in West Palm Beach every week. One morning, as she came downstairs, she saw a person who looked like a sheriff officer standing in the kitchen. She immediately felt hope.

'I thought to myself, 'Thank God, this will all end today,' she recounts.

But she saw the officer laughing and chatting with Epstein, wishing him a good day and leaving, and he didn't say a word to her. 'Seeing that sheriff officer, I understood his intention that no matter what Epstein did, this person would never be arrested,' Gilles said, 'No one will stop him. Even if you scream from the highest place in the world, no one will care.'

Epstein's Controversial 'Work Release' Program

The accounts of Roza Gilles and other victimized women of being sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein even while serving jail time have raised serious questions about the controversial 'plea deal' Epstein made with then-US Attorney Alex Acosta in 2008.

According to a review report on Epstein's 'work release' program, released by Florida authorities in 2021, he began working full-time as the president of the Florida Science Foundation in October 2008.

For the first six months of the program, he was allowed to stay at the Foundation's office from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. In May 2009, this period was extended further, allowing him to spend only eight hours a day in jail. From the following month, the program was further expanded, and he was granted permission to work at the Foundation seven days a week.

For the last two weeks before his release to house arrest, Epstein was also allowed to go to his luxurious residence in West Palm Beach for two hours each afternoon.

His 'work release' program had many conditions attached. These included meeting only with business partners, being required to wear an ankle monitor until July 2009, and not being allowed to contact family, friends, girlfriends, or minors.

Another agreement was made between Epstein's lawyers and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO). Under this, Epstein had to appoint off-duty sheriff's deputies ('permit deputies') to keep a record of visitors coming and going from the office.

Epstein's lawyers, on behalf of the Florida Science Foundation, paid the Sheriff's Office a total of $128,136 for such arrangements. This information is mentioned in a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

According to that report, when the Sheriff's Office reviewed 494 visitor logs, no evidence was found of Epstein having contact with unauthorized individuals. The report also states that those logs were later destroyed according to office policy.

In 2019, a few days after new charges were filed against Epstein, Alex Acosta, who was Secretary of Labor in the first administration of then-President Donald Trump, resigned from his post. In 2020, a review report by the US Department of Justice concluded that Acosta had shown 'poor decision-making' in the 2008 agreement. He was particularly criticized for the decision not to prosecute Epstein federally, and for not informing the girls and young women claiming to be victims of sexual abuse about it. However, the report did not conclude that Acosta or other government attorneys had violated professional ethics.

In December 2019, four months after Epstein committed suicide in a New York jail, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office completely shut down its 'work release' program. The 2021 FDLE report stated that no criminal involvement was found on the part of any member of the Sheriff's Office involved in Epstein's 'work release' or 'permit deputy' program.

Under the Control of the Modeling Agency

The conditions of Epstein's 'work release' program made young foreign models like Gilles easy targets for him. According to Gilles, in 2008, at a fashion show in Uzbekistan, Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent, contacted her backstage.

Brunel introduced himself as the owner of MC-2 Model Management in New York and offered her a modeling contract there. Only later did Gilles learn that Epstein was one of the main financial backers of that company.

According to Gilles, the contract she signed established the agency's control over every aspect of her life. Immediately after arriving in America, she was burdened with a debt of $4,000 for her visa and $1,500 monthly rent for a crowded model apartment in Manhattan. Many young women slept in bunk beds in the same room there.

The debt grew so much that her parents in Uzbekistan could not even imagine earning that amount in a year. A few months after arriving in America, Gilles cried in front of Brunel at MC-2's Miami office. Her family depended on her income. But by then, she was in debt of about $10,000 and was not even getting modeling jobs. She proposed returning to the Asian market where she had been successful, but the agency rejected it.

'Jean-Luc Brunel looked at me and said, 'You look very sad, wait a moment.' Then he made a phone call, hung up after a while, and said, 'I've arranged it. I've sent $600 to your parents,' Gilles recalled.

She was surprised because within minutes, her family in Uzbekistan received news that they had indeed received $600. 'I thought to myself, what happened? Who did he call? A friend in America, or some government official?' Gilles said.

That incident sent a clear message. She was completely under the agency's control, and that meant she was also under Epstein's control. Brunel, who was arrested in 2022 on charges of rape and sexual assault, was found dead in his jail cell. In the summer of 2009, Gilles was instructed to go to West Palm Beach for a photoshoot.

The huge white mansion where the photoshoot took place belonged to Epstein. After the first brief meeting with Epstein there, the process of permanently moving Gilles to Miami began. Epstein offered her a proposal to model during the week and do office work at the Florida Science Foundation on weekends. But Gilles did not find the proposal logical in any way.

'To become a model, I have to audition, build a portfolio, and do a lot of work. But you are offering me an office job. I don't understand how that helps my modeling career,' she said.

'I was alone, I had no money. And one person was telling me that to do their job, I had to do another job too.'

According to Gilles, after the first sexual assault at the Florida Science Foundation, she began to be sexually abused and raped every weekend in West Palm Beach. After Epstein's house arrest in Florida ended, he was allowed to return to New York in 2010. But her nightmare did not end even after that.

From CNN