The girls were different: how Epstein started recruiting models from Russia

Over the years, several young girls from Russia and Belarus not only entered into relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, but also became his "scouts" — they helped select models to participate in his parties, organized their trips to the United States and meetings with the scandalous financier. Izvestia found out the scheme of such "recruitment" by carefully examining the so-called "Epstein files" published by the US Department of Justice. For example, in addition to Karina Shulyak, who is already widely known to the public, Epstein's "scouts" turned out to be two sisters from Novosibirsk, Daria and Alexandra Burak, as well as at least four other girls, to whom he probably also paid for tuition, flights, hotel accommodation and other expenses. The details are in the Izvestia article.

Greetings from Novosibirsk

Jeffrey Epstein established a network of his "scouts" in Russia, girls who, at his request, selected models to participate in his scandalous parties. This was established by Izvestia after a careful study of the "Epstein files" published by the US Department of Justice. However, if the role of his close assistant Karina Shulyak was known for a long time, then the activities of his other recruiters remained in the shadows even after the publication of these documents.

First of all, we are talking about two sisters from Novosibirsk, Daria and Alexandra Burak, who "deserved" numerous mentions in the financier's correspondence. Apparently, the model Anna Kasatkina introduced Epstein to Daria. In messages in January 2017, the financier mentions that a new acquaintance made a good impression on him when they met, but was embarrassed during the conversation. Kasatkina confirmed that Burak was "concerned" after talking to Epstein (probably about his content).

According to Izvestia, at that time Daria Burak was a model for the international agency Metropolitan Models, which was mentioned in the web archive.

Prior to that, she was a model for the Novosibirsk agency Russian Shine, which was reported in one of the correspondence on the Reddit forum, which also contained a link to her page on the website of another modeling agency in Singapore, Diva Models.

Judging by the correspondence, after two and a half years, Burak was not at all worried about her communication with Epstein. Moreover, she recruited new models for him herself: she selected girls for possible participation in parties, checked their documents and organized their trips to the United States.

The scheme included strict selection: files like Candidates.docx with lists of girls. For example, in August 2019, Burak, in a letter to Epstein, mentions a 22-year-old candidate from among the models who worked with her, says that she is from Ukraine, and sends her a photo.

Daria coordinated her activities with Epstein's assistants, such as Leslie Groff, Bella Klein, and Valdson Kotrin, and provided approved candidates with flights to Paris (economy class from Aeroflot and Air France) at Epstein's residence at 22 Avenue Foch.

As follows from the published documents, Daria was looking for candidates not only in Novosibirsk, but also around the world, for example, in Cannes in the spring of 2019.

Her relationship with Epstein was not only businesslike: she complained to him about financial problems, breaking up with her boyfriend and asked for help for her friend with surgery (although Epstein refused). In response, he sent money and photos, to which she reacted enthusiastically.

Daria Burak has a sister, Alexandra, born in 2000, who was probably also involved in recruiting models, according to Epstein's correspondence.

Daria's phone was unavailable, and there were no messenger accounts linked to it. Alexandra answered the call from the Izvestia correspondent, but pretended it wasn't her. After the correspondent wrote her a Telegram message, she read it, but did not respond, setting the cost of 10 thousand "stars" (about 16 thousand rubles) for her next message.

Karina Shulyak and Tatiana Pilipenok

Speaking of Epstein's girls, it is impossible not to mention the most important of them — Karina Shulyak. She was born in 1989 in the village of Valeryanovo near Minsk, studied at the Belarusian State Medical University until 2009, after which, at the age of 20, she moved to the United States to continue her studies as a dentist at Columbia University.

Their earliest correspondence with Epstein dates back to September 2009, in which the financier asked her about the flight home, where she went from time to time, probably to visit her parents. In 2008, Jeffrey Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in prison for molesting minors, he was released only on July 22, 2009. Thus, according to the documents, he met Karina almost immediately after his release. Their early correspondence is quite innocent in nature — Epstein and Shulyak are trying to learn more about each other, share their views, interests, and talk about religion, politics, and culture.

Epstein usually wrote short messages in a dry business style, but at first he wrote long letters to Karina. However, their acquaintance began, in fact, with a deception on the part of Epstein — he introduced himself to her under the assumed name Jeremy Stifler. This was probably done to hide from Karina that he was a convicted sex offender.

Karina was mentioned in the correspondence of Epstein's staff as a "particularly important person." In the files on the financier's case, she is mentioned more than 40 thousand times. She participated in helping Epstein organize trips, lived in his house, and often visited the island, according to the letters. "She's very important to Jeffrey (his girlfriend?)," says one of the letters in Epstein's files, a dental student. Travels with Jeffrey and helps coordinate travel/flights, meals/logistics. Attends dinners/parties with Jeffrey. <...> She lives in... and in Jeffrey's house when he's in town."

As follows from the personal letters, the financier transferred large sums of money to her, gave her gifts, and paid for her studies. Karina was the last person Epstein talked to before his suicide: shortly before he committed suicide, Epstein called Shulyak and talked to her about something for half an hour. What exactly is not known for certain.

Karina still has a close friend in Russia, Tatiana Pilipenok, married to Kuznetsov.

Tatiana's VKontakte page has a lot of photos with Karina, indicating that they were very close friends, and among other things, it follows from Epstein's correspondence with Karina that she helped her friend obtain a US green card.

Izvestia tried to find out from Tatiana Pilipenok about Karina's last conversation with Epstein. She did not respond to the correspondent's message, but after that, Tatiana's husband Denis wrote to him, who began extorting money and accused Russian journalists of incompetence. Denis did not respond to subsequent messages about the exact amount and specific information that he is ready to provide.

The Russian model and Elon Musk

Kira Dikhtyar, a model from Moscow, born in 1988, also appears in Epstein's correspondence. Since childhood, she has been engaged in rhythmic gymnastics, at the age of nine she won a gold medal at the 1998 Junior Olympic Games, and received the title of Master of Sports. She studied at Moscow State University, but interrupted her studies and moved to the United States at the age of 17 for a modeling career, according to Epstein's letters.

According to the published documents of the US Department of Justice on his case, Kira Dikhtyar (in correspondence — Kira D) has been in contact with the financier since 2009. And she also quickly became a "scout." Epstein asked her to take photos of the candidates. In 2012, she announced her willingness to find a "nice gymnast in Kiev," and discussed the need to teach girls to say "thank you" to Epstein for his support. Among other things, Dikhtyar informs Epstein about the imminent arrival of 17-year-old Belarusian model Ira Sumbayeva.

The correspondence mentioned the age of the candidates (for example, it is discussed: "is 24 too much?") and the organization of "massages", including holding one for Elon Musk in 2012, where Dikhtyar promised to "organize everything" (it is not clear from the letters whether she organized it).

The story of Kira Dikhtyar's friend Sanita is revealing — correspondence about this girl was also found in Epstein's files. Kira presented Sanita to the financier as a very beautiful girl from St. Petersburg with problems, indicating that she needed help. Next, you can see the correspondence between Sanita and Epstein, where she suddenly burst into a tirade in his direction that it was unacceptable for her to exchange "services" for "massage", that it was "wild and dirty" for her. Kira then apologizes for her friend, saying that she does not understand how the world works, and should be grateful to Epstein for introducing her to the world of the rich and famous, in particular, introduced Woody Allen and other stars.

It follows from Epstein's letters that Dikhtyar starred for Vogue Italia, Harper's Bazaar, and Playboy magazines, participated in the reality show The Face with Naomi Campbell, and mentioned working with rapper P. Diddy. She appeared in the documentary series about Epstein's crimes Chasing Ghislaine (released in 2021) as a witness. Journalist Vicki Ward described Kira Dikhtyar in her 2023 publications as an acquaintance of Epstein from the age of 17: the financier paid her to attend meetings in New York as a "decoration" during negotiations with Middle Eastern leaders and American businessmen.

Dikhtyar claimed that Epstein did not try to enter into an intimate relationship with her. After 2022, the girl returned to Moscow, it follows from her social networks. Her role in Epstein's materials is limited to correspondence between 2009 and 2016 on finding models and organizing meetings. Izvestia tried to contact Kira Dikhtyar using two phone numbers (American and Russian), but they turned out to be inactive.

PR agency from Zheleznodorozhny

Izvestia found information in Epstein's files, according to which in 2016-2017 he made periodic transfers (up to $2 thousand at a time) to Nikolai Gurov from the Zheleznodorozhny city near Moscow. Representatives of Deutsche Bank and the bank's auditors conducted an internal audit of these transactions (Gurov appears in these materials as the owner of the Alliance Media PR agency). Epstein's accountant, Bella Klein, replied to the bank staff that it was money allegedly to help Epstein's friend get a visa.

However, other letters from the entrepreneur indicate that this was a payment for publishing photos of certain girls in Shape magazine, as well as helping some of them with tuition fees.

At the time of publication, Nikolai Gurov had not responded to Izvestia's request to clarify why Epstein had transferred money to him.

Epstein's Other Girls

The name of another girl, Anastasia Kopets, also appears in the correspondence. According to the letters, she was also involved in recruiting models. For example, in January 2014, she asked Epstein if she could arrange a date in New York with another Russian girl and sent her a photo.

As Izvestia has established, Anastasia Kopets is a model for the New York agency Model Mayhem. Anastasia's page on the agency's website says that she has been living in New York since 2010, and she hails from Minsk. At that time, she had eight years of experience in the modeling business, including going on the catwalks and participating in photo shoots. It was also stated that she was looking for a part-time job as a model.

Izvestia tried to contact Anastasia, but her American number was unavailable, and she did not respond to a Telegram message.

Another Epstein girlfriend, whose name is openly mentioned in correspondence, was Russian model Yulia Stepanova, who was given a flight to the United States by finance assistant Leslie Groff and booked a room at the Holiday Inn in New York in 2011.

As Izvestia has determined, Yulia Stepanova has been familiar with Epstein since at least 2011. He transferred money to her through his assistants Bella Klein and Leslie Groff, paid for flights and hotels. Later, he was able to help her get a job at the PR agency of his friend Peggy Segal. Stepanova also probably helped Epstein with finding new girls.

Izvestia also found separate fragments of Epstein's correspondence with girls named Ekaterina Malkova (judging by the documents, she participated in organizing Epstein's meetings with Russian girls up to the moment of his detention), Daria Taraba (probably engaged in similar activities) and a number of others. Malkova did not answer the phone, and her messenger accounts are not linked to her number. Daria Taraba did not answer the phone, but she read the correspondent's message on Telegram, to which, however, there was also no response.