COLOMBES, France — Daniel Siad, a French professional model recruiter who spent more than a decade helping arrange introductions between Jeffrey Epstein and multiple models, was found dead Monday at his home near Paris.
Siad’s body was discovered at his residence in Colombes, a suburb of the French capital, Marie-Céline Lawrysz, deputy public prosecutor at the Nanterre Judicial Court, said in a statement to CNN on Wednesday.
Authorities said an autopsy will be carried out to establish the cause of death.
Siad was recently interviewed by CNN’s Katie Polglase. In that interview, he said he had no reason to think two women he had recommended to Epstein had been harmed by him, even though both women told CNN that Epstein had abused them.
CNN reported that, even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on sex crimes, figures within the modeling industry, including Siad, continued to pursue business opportunities with him, invite him to fashion events and permit him to remain connected to their companies.
Siad said Epstein had told him he had paid for his crimes and promised that “this would never happen with anybody” Siad sent his way.
“I trusted him and believed this guy was a professional person,” Siad told CNN in an interview published in June. “I never heard anything from anyone I introduced to him who came back to me that they had a bad situation. I believed this guy is a professional person.”
Siad also said he believed Epstein worked as a casting director for Victoria’s Secret and the modeling agency MC2. CNN said it found no evidence to support that claim.
‘Too old’
Files released by the Department of Justice show Epstein paid tens of thousands of dollars to Siad.
In one message, Siad wrote: “Cute French girl in Marrakesh… She said that she will (be) happy to meet you.”
Siad separately said that Epstein had asked him for help finding an assistant.
In a 2018 email, Siad wrote that he was looking for a “good looking young assistant” for Epstein.
In another message, Siad sent a photo to Epstein of a woman, describing her as “very polite” and someone who has “potential” as a “model” or “assistant.”
“Too old,” Epstein replied.
Siad repeatedly sent Epstein photos of young women he encountered during his travels, some of them in provocative poses, according to the DOJ files.
Siad’s name appears more than 2,000 times in the DOJ’s Epstein files, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported.
Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a Russian-born model previously told CNN that Siad introduced her to Epstein, and that the digraced financier abused her.
“If it wasn’t for him, my life would have unfolded completely differently,” Pozhidaeva told CNN Wednesday. She said that Siad’s death meant that he could not be held accountable. “I wanted for justice to be served, for there to be some kind of investigation and achieve some closure,” she said.
Siad’s lawyer, Ménya Arab-Tigrine, said in a Wednesday statement that his client had been willing to “subject himself to the grueling media spotlight…to see the truth come to light.”
“We must await the autopsy results to confirm whether his body simply gave out,” Arab-Tigrine said, adding that his client was innocent and had not been prosecuted or “formally implicated in any legal proceedings.”
Epstein’s ties to the modeling industry are part of ongoing investigations, which include a criminal probe launched this year in Paris that is reviewing information related to Siad, according to the city’s chief prosecutor.
Siad was also facing accusations of abuse. A model also accused him of rape when she was working in France in 1990. Siad denied the allegation.
CNN’s Katie Polglase, Barbara Arvanitidis, Elina Baudier Kim, Curt Devine and Isabelle Chapman contributed reporting.
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