A French modeling scout accused of recruiting women for Jeffrey Epstein was found dead at his home outside Paris, according to prosecutors.
Daniel Siad, whose name reportedly appeared more than 2,000 times in Department of Justice Epstein files, was discovered dead Monday in Colombes, west of Paris.
The cause of death has not been determined.
The Nanterre prosecutor’s office said an autopsy will be conducted as authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.
Siad, who was either 68 or 69, had been accused of helping Epstein traffic and abuse women, allegations he denied.
His lawyer told Reuters that Siad was never formally the subject of judicial proceedings.
Still, his name had become another ugly thread in the Epstein web, the elite sex-trafficking scandal that continues to raise questions about who knew what, who helped and who escaped accountability.
Siad and Epstein reportedly communicated for roughly a decade, with their last correspondence coming shortly before Epstein’s 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell.
Emails included in the Epstein files showed Siad describing women he had found.
🇫🇷 A French modeling scout with close ties to Jeffrey Epstein has been found DEAD at his home outside Paris.
69-year-old Daniel Siad was accused of aiding Epstein in trafficking and abusing women.
Siad hadn’t been questioned yet, but denied everything.
His name appeared… pic.twitter.com/mvDQXZ8OvT
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 22, 2026
“Hello Jeffrey, I just found an amizinng [sic] one. She is 20 years old but she looks younger, from Latvia,” he wrote in one sent in June 2009, one year after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution.
In another email from July 2014, Siad appeared to compare finding women for Epstein to fishing.
“In this busyness [sic] I feel like fisherman, some time I cache quick, some time no fish,” he reportedly wrote to Epstein.
That exchange came after Epstein canceled a meeting, according to reports.
“I will reimburse you of course for any expenses,” Epstein replied back. “I value your friendship and hope this did not cause you too much trouble.”
Siad denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
In February, he told French television that Epstein had “used [his] trust” and claimed he was not “in a position to know that this man was dangerous.”
“I have nothing to blame myself for,” he said in a video shared online.
Siad also described himself as someone who was “from Kabylia [a region of Algeria], born French and a Swedish citizen.”
But at least two women accused him of grooming them for Epstein or others in the modeling world.
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In February, former Swedish model Ebba Karlsson accused Siad of raping her when she was 20 and grooming her for Gerald Marie, the former head of Elite Model Management.
Siad and Marie denied the allegations.
In May, a French model identified only as Juliette said Siad groomed her in 2004 when she was 21.
She said he asked whether she was a model and whether she wanted to move to the U.S.
“I think he was trying to gauge whether I would accept without asking too many questions. Which I did – I let things stay vague so I wouldn’t come across as difficult,” she told AFP.
Juliette said she was sent a plane ticket to New York and went to a Madison Avenue address after landing.
There, she met Epstein and claimed he asked for her passport, which she likened to “hostage taking.”
Epstein reportedly told her he could not see her but gave her $120 and said she could use his limo to go shopping.
The next day, she returned to the Madison Avenue building hoping for an interview.
Instead, she claimed she was given a tour through areas filled with “photos zooming in on women’s intimate body parts.”
“My internal alarm went off,” she said after being led to a bedroom.
“I felt the need to say, ‘I’m warning you, I’m not going to do anything.’”
Juliette claimed Epstein groped her before offering her a job as a party “escort.”
She said she demanded her passport and fled New York.
Stan Pottinger, a lawyer for Epstein victims, said in 2016 that he had spoken to Siad, “whom Jean Luc Brunel [a model scout and longtime Epstein associate found dead in 2022] describes as a ‘scout’ or recruiter of girls and/or women for J. Epstein.”
Brunel, another powerful modeling figure tied to Epstein, was found dead in a French jail in 2022 while awaiting trial on rape charges.
Now Siad is dead, too.
For victims and their advocates, the timing will only deepen the sense that the Epstein network keeps producing corpses instead of answers.
Authorities have not said Siad’s death was suspicious, and the autopsy has not yet determined how he died.
But his death removes another potential witness from a scandal built on money, access, models, private flights and powerful men who were never forced to fully explain their role.
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