‘About 50 Brazilian women’ were at Epstein’s mansion, the billionaire’s victim tells the BBC

New documents from the Epstein case speak of a Brazilian victim ATTENTION: This text contains reports of sexual violence. Marina Lacerda went public in September this year to report having been a victim of sexual violence by Jeffrey Epstein. Now, in an interview with BBC News Brasil, she says that many other Brazilian women like her would have been in the billionaire’s mansion and that they would have been abused by him. ✅ Follow the g1 international news channel on WhatsApp “At least 50 Brazilians, I think. I took some of these girls, and they took other girls”, says Marina. Epstein died in a New York prison cell in August 2019, while awaiting, without the possibility of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges, more than a decade after his conviction for procuring prostitution services from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender. At the time of the abuse, Lacerda says he lived in Astoria, a neighborhood in the Queens district of New York, known for having a large Brazilian community. BBC News Brasil revealed the link between Epstein’s case and Brazil based on a document released by the United States Department of Justice, made public last week, which spoke of a “large Brazilian group”, but the names and details that could give greater context to the information are redacted. Marina Lacerda says she took other Brazilian women to meet Jeffrey Epstein EPA Marina is from Belo Horizonte (MG) and says she went to the United States when she was 8 years old, to accompany her mother. She says that, as a teenager, she worked several different jobs, but that the money was not enough to support herself. “I was an immigrant and a minor,” he says. It was there that she discovered a group of young people, linked to a church in Astoria, with other Brazilian women. Until one of them arrived with an invitation. “This girl said: I know you’re going through immense difficulties at home and I wanted to help you. There’s a super rich, powerful guy who lives in Manhattan and likes to get massages from young girls.” She says that she had previously worked temporarily as a receptionist at a spa in Koreatown, a neighborhood in Manhattan, and that she had learned the basics of how to give a massage. “Of course I didn’t have any training, right? But I told this friend that I knew how to do it.” The friend then warned her: “You have to wear a bikini underneath, because he likes girls who give massages in a bikini, wearing a bra.” ‘You’ve never made 300 dollars in 40 minutes’ ‘I would have felt much better today if I could have spoken in 2008’, says Brazilian Reuters Marina tells BBC News Brasil that she found her friend’s invitation very strange, but decided to go anyway. She was 14 years old. When he arrived at the place, he saw that things would be very different from what his colleague said. “I was very nervous and anxious, but this friend said he was super nice,” she says. “A maid picked me up, picked up this friend, put her in an elevator, and we went to the third floor. Then, a door opened, with a corridor. We walked to a massage room where everything was dark. The window was covered.” Epstein then reportedly introduced himself for the first time. “He asked where I was from, how old I was, if I went to school.” Marina reports that Epstein spent much of his time on the phone and gave the impression that he was talking to important people. According to her, when she ended one of the calls, he turned around and started touching her. She claims they asked her to take off her blouse. She says that Epstein, trying to appear kind, wanted to touch her. “I said, ‘No’. I said I didn’t feel comfortable.” Then he says he noticed a change in the weather. The young woman who was with her would have reacted with irritation. “She looked at me angrily. I thought that wasn’t part of it”, he says. According to Marina, Epstein then tried to minimize the situation. “He said, ‘give her time so she can feel comfortable with me’. So, I switched places with my friend, and he started touching her.” She says that Epstein’s stance changed with his Brazilian colleague. “He was super aggressive.” Marina states that the situation escalated quickly and that she was in shock. “It was a very intense thing. I didn’t know it was going to happen.” When Epstein finished, they got dressed, received the money and left. “He said he would see me again. I kept quiet, thinking I would never see this guy again.” When they left, Marina says she complained to her friend about the situation. This colleague countered: “You’ve never made $300 in 40 minutes.” “We argued, she threw the money in my face and told me to stop complaining, that I needed this money and that it would help me a lot.” She says that her friend convinced her, and she returned to the place several times. “You live in Astoria, you’re an immigrant, you don’t know anyone. This guy will help you.” ‘We took several Brazilian women, unfortunately’ See the videos that are trending on g1 Marina Lacerda states that, after a few visits, the situation “escalated”. “It started to become a mess. He [Epstein] He started asking me to take girls. I didn’t want my friends to know about this. But I had a friend who was being abused by her brother and lived with me for a while.” The friend agreed. From then on, the pair would have started looking for other girls for Epstein, says Marina. “Girls who needed to work because they were immigrants, they didn’t have immigration documents, they didn’t have a family. A lot of Brazilians, Russians, Hispanics. We took several Brazilians, unfortunately,” she says. “Brazilians arrive here [nos EUA] and has no documents. There’s no way to fix life. It’s very difficult to be an immigrant here, especially Brazilian when you come alone.” She says that, over time, she began to have more freedom in the house, and that new girls asked to go with her to the place. “He never said that we were minors. She said she was getting a massage from a pretty, young girl.” She also said that she went to Epstein’s office and that he gave her money when she needed it. “He was very manipulative. He always told us that he owned the government, the bank.” She also reported an alleged episode of racism, when he allegedly took a black Brazilian woman home. “He was mad at me. He said he had to stop bringing dark girls. I don’t think they paid her.” Over time, Lacerda says that Epstein started to complain that she was only taking “old” girls and that she should look for younger girls. “I was already feeling really bad about taking girls who were 15, 16 years old.” When remembering the situation, she complains about the lack of support from family members with teenagers like her. “I went out to Brazilian clubs and saw girls who were 14, 15, 16 years old, without ID. Where are our mothers? I think my mother made a big mistake. If she had given me a legal path, had made a way to not let me loose, I wouldn’t have done the things I was going to do. I took the girls and the girls took other girls. I was abused there from the age of 14 to 17.” Statements to the FBI Marina says that she was approached by the FBI, the American federal police, to tell what she knew about Epstein in 2008, but, at that time, she was afraid to speak. She reports that she then lived with other Brazilian women in a house, also in Astoria. “They were very aggressive with me. They arrived asking to speak to me, that I had to speak to them, that there was an affair with Epstein. I had no idea what was going on.” Lacerda says she called Epstein’s secretary at the time to ask what was going on and that he promised to send a lawyer to help. She was told never to call that number again. “I was very scared, I didn’t tell her everything. The lawyer wasn’t for me, it was for Epstein, to protect him.” In 2019, the FBI sought Marina again. This time, she decided to speak in more detail. Epstein would die the same year, in July, in prison. “They wanted to know who I took there [na casa]. When I gave my statement, I didn’t remember much until then. Trauma ends you. I was very nervous.” Attacks after the decision to go public In September of this year, Marina Lacerda went public to tell her story for the first time. She gave an interview to the American TV network ABC News and also participated in a press conference with eight other women who accuse Epstein of abuse. The act, which called for the revelation of all documents about the case, took place in front of the American Congress, in Washington. From then on, she decided that she should talk more about the case: she created pages on Instagram and TikTok and hired a person to help her with the content. His goal, he says, is to make more people aware of physical and psychological abuse “After I broke my silence, I haven’t stopped. Open platforms and started talking on podcasts. I talk about how to teach our children to say no. Sexual, emotional, financial, physical abuse starts with us. What do you let happen. Many parents don’t have this knowledge.” Since she started giving interviews, she regrets that she has been criticized on social media. “People attack, saying that I stayed, that I came back [na casa]. Why do you think other Brazilian women [vítimas de Epstein] Don’t want to say anything? The family will attack. When I mentioned Brazil, my family was all over me. And look, my family in Brazil never got involved in anything that happened here.” She says that the family believed that their reports had some political objective. “They thought it had something to do with Lula or Bolsonaro. I said, guys, I don’t care about Lula and Bolsonaro. I don’t care about Trump here. There are people who ask me about Lula. I don’t care. I don’t know anything about Brazil.” She says she reads some of the comments in posts about her and many are offensive, which may discourage other victims from telling their stories. Marina says she receives constant reports from other Latinas who were abused, but who don’t want to go public for fear of criticism. “Just look at the attacks I receive. It would be more than right for them to say something, but I can’t ask that of anyone.”

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