Daniel Siad pictured in the Epstein files(Image: US Department of Justice)
A French-Swedish model scout with close ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead near Paris.
Daniel Siad, 69, was found dead at his home on Monday evening, the Nanterre prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. He was under investigation in France as one of several French men accused of helping Epstein traffic and abuse women.
Siad faced rape allegations after the US Department of Justice released a tranche of declassified files relating to Epstein in late January. The model scout's name appeared in more than 1,000 documents.
"An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery," the prosecutor's office said.
Paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking(Image: New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP)
An autopsy will be carried out as part of the probe. According to preliminary information reported by French newspaper Le Parisien, Siad is believed to have died of cardiac arrest.
Siad had not yet been questioned by investigators and had denied the allegations, saying he wanted to be heard and give his version of events. He claimed the American convicted sex offender had "taken advantage of his trust".
In the latest batch of files, Siad likened his efforts to recruit women to fishing. "In This busyness I feel like fisherman some time I cache quick, some time no fish," he wrote to Epstein in an exchange in July 2014.
"I had 2 girls from Sweden, a Slovakian, 2 French and [redacted] the Russian, with whom you spoke and a beautiful Chinese named [redacted]," Siad wrote in the same exchange, expressing frustration that Epstein had failed to turn up for a planned meeting. Epstein replied: "I will reimburse you of course for any expenses."
In 2020, French authorities arrested modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel following allegations that he procured women for Epstein. He was found dead at La Santé prison in Paris in 2022.
Victims of Brunel's alleged abuse said at the time that they were dismayed that the 75-year-old, a well-known model scout in the 1980s and 1990s who ran agencies in Paris and New York, would never face trial.
They called his death a double blow after Epstein died aged 66 in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
"It makes me angry because I’ve been fighting for years," Thysia Huisman, a Dutch former model who told police she had been drugged and raped by Brunel as a teenager, told The Associated Press in 2022. "For me, the end of this was to be in court. And now that whole ending - which would help form closure - is taken away from me."
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