The Wall Street Journal haspublisheda major new investigation into the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender who died in 2019. The article’s central figure is Julia Molchanova, a 37-year-old born in Russia. She spoke to journalists for the first time about her complicated relationship with Epstein, the abuse she suffered at his hands, and her role in a class-action lawsuit against Bank of America filed by women who were harmed by the financier. Meduza summarizes the key points of the Wall Street Journal’s report.
The Wall Street Journal does not detail Molchanova’s life before she met the disgraced financier, saying only that the two met in December 2011 in New York. Molchanova was 22 at the time, living in Russia and studying design at a university; she had come to the United States on a trip and spoke little English.
Epstein spotted her outside the Barneys department store on Madison Avenue, Molchanova said, complimented her — he “said something about her blue eyes,” she recalled — and pointed out his townhouse nearby as if it were a tourist attraction.
Using another young Russian-speaking woman as a translator, Epstein invited his new acquaintance to breakfast the next morning, where he peppered her with questions: “What did she want [in life]? What did she dream of doing?”
Molchanova told him she was interested in fashion design, and Epstein offered to help her get into the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York — “that was the hook,” she said, that the American used to reel her in. Back home, she signed up for additional sewing courses to prepare for the FIT program, and Epstein paid for them.
In January 2012, Epstein invited Molchanova back to New York, ostensibly to show her FIT, and put her up in an apartment where he housed many other women who had suffered abuse at his hands. During that trip, Molchanova was sexually abused for the first time. When she told Epstein she was unhappy with what he had done, he told her that sexual openness was part of American culture and that she would have to change to fit in, she told the Wall Street Journal.
The following month, Molchanova fell even more firmly under the financier’s control. She traveled to Paris with her boyfriend, who assaulted her during an argument, and, frightened, wrote to Epstein, who happened to be in the French capital as well. He helped her get away, paying for a plane ticket back to Russia.
Growing increasingly attached to Epstein, Molchanova eventually moved to New York for good and began following the advice of her “mentor” in hopes of breaking into fashion design. But he never actually helped her get into FIT.
Instead, Epstein set out to groom Molchanova as his “assistant,” tightening his control over her life. She recalled that he expected her to thank him constantly, act cheerful, and be friendly with everyone. “It was like a cult,” Molchanova now says.
Epstein regularly coerced Molchanova and other women who had become dependent on him into sex, and he expected them to bring him new potential victims. Molchanova says she refused to take part in this kind of procuring, and his attitude toward her worsened as a result. He constantly demanded that she explain how she could be useful to him and often isolated her from the outside world.
Epstein also monitored her spending, Molchanova said, giving her less than $3,000 a month, though the amount varied. He dictated what she wore, how long her hair should be, which doctors she could see, and who she could spend time with. In 2013, he even arranged a sham marriage for Molchanova to another woman. He isknownto have used this tactic more than once within his “cult.”
In 2014, Epstein’s lawyer, Darren Indyke, registered a company called JSC Interiors in Molchanova’s name — she said that Epstein presented it as a way to launch her design business. In reality, she carried out only a handful of design-related tasks, such as putting together flower arrangements, while Epstein kept JSC Interiors under his own control, using it to move money and carry out other transactions without the knowledge of its nominal founder.
Molchanova says she only learned about this years later. Bank of America, where the company held its account, clearly turned a blind eye to actions Epstein allegedly took in her name, she says, and she later became the lead plaintiff in a collective lawsuit against the bank brought by women harmed by the financier. A court recently approved a settlement in the case, under which Bank of America agreed to pay a total of $72.5 million to dozens of plaintiffs. The bank denies facilitating crimes related to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual abuse.
Indyke and Epstein’s accountant, Richard Kahn, also deny any wrongdoing. Their representatives told the Wall Street Journal that Molchanova never told them she had been abused and “appeared to be one of Epstein’s assistants working through an LLC that Epstein set up for interior design purposes.” Indyke and Kahn deny knowing that their employer had arranged a sham marriage for Molchanova or used accounts registered in her name.
Epstein never helped Molchanova build a career in design, but he did try to place her in other jobs, including at Next Management, the modeling agency run by well-known businesswomanFaith Kates.
