Former associates of Jeffrey Epstein have described a pattern of coercive control and abuse that extended beyond sexual exploitation, detailing how the financier used manipulation and psychological tactics to maintain power over women he housed and employed. Epstein, who died in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges, referred to his operation as a "cult," with himself as the leader, according to one former assistant identified as Anya.
Anya told the BBC that she lost her home and was pressured to leave her New York apartment by Epstein's brother, Mark, in the week following Jeffrey Epstein's death. She had lived for years in one of several apartments on East 66th Street in Manhattan that Epstein used to house women he abused. Mark Epstein denies any awareness of his brother's wrongdoing.
"I'm still struggling to reconcile with the fact that I was abused for years," Anya said. "You were not chained to a door or something, right? You were not locked up in a basement. The chains were less obvious, but they were there."
Anya described the "assistants" as a group of about a dozen women who were housed by Epstein, worked at his beck and call, and were regularly sexually abused. She stated that they were initially drawn in with deceptive promises of work before Epstein began to exert control over nearly every aspect of their lives, exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities.
According to Anya, Epstein controlled their finances, dictated their social interactions, and engaged in psychological degradation. She also stated that he obsessively monitored their bodies and forced her to undergo unnecessary, disfiguring surgery.
Sarah Kellen, another former assistant, corroborated these accounts in testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Kellen stated that Epstein presented himself as a savior figure, adept at diminishing his victims' decision-making abilities and autonomy, thereby increasing their dependence on him.
Dr. Tara Quinn-Cirillo, a clinical psychologist specializing in coercive control, noted that the susceptibility to such manipulation is not limited to minors. "You can be groomed as an adult," she said. "You can be vulnerable to this."
Epstein maintained multiple residences, including a home in Palm Beach, Florida, and an apartment in Paris. These properties served as settings for his alleged operations.
