French investigators are now working without one of their most closely watched figures in the sprawling Epstein trafficking probe after that man turned up dead this week.
Colombes police discovered the lifeless body of Daniel Siad inside his home in the Paris suburb on Monday.
Deputy public prosecutor Marie-Céline Lawrysz, of the Nanterre Judicial Court, confirmed the finding to CNN through a statement released Wednesday.
Investigators have withheld any determination on how Siad died pending a scheduled autopsy.
For over ten years, Siad worked as a professional model recruiter with direct access to Jeffrey Epstein, arranging introductions between the disgraced financier and numerous young women in the fashion industry.
Weeks before his death, Siad broke a long public silence, granting CNN journalist Katie Polglase a rare interview.
During that sit-down, published in June, Siad insisted he never had reason to suspect Epstein had harmed any of the women he personally referred — a claim that directly contradicted accounts from two of those same women, who told CNN separately that Epstein abused them.
Siad’s business relationship with Epstein didn’t end when most of the industry cut ties.
Even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on sex crimes, fashion insiders like Siad kept the financier close, pursuing new ventures with him, welcoming him to industry events, and letting him maintain ties to their companies for years.
Siad framed his continued loyalty around personal reassurance from Epstein himself, who he said promised his past crimes were behind him.
“I trusted him and believed this guy was a professional person,” Siad said in the June interview. “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 further claimed that he had understood Epstein to be working as a casting director for both Victoria’s Secret and modeling agency MC2 — a claim CNN’s reporting found no evidence to substantiate.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office confirmed this week that its wide-reaching investigation into Epstein’s network, opened in February on allegations of human trafficking and criminal conspiracy, will proceed regardless of Siad’s death.
That investigation has already drawn a substantial response: 24 women have surfaced or been identified through prosecutors’ review of evidence and a public appeal for victims to step forward. Investigators have completed interviews with at least 16 of them, and additional sessions remain scheduled.
Prosecutors nevertheless acknowledged they lacked the evidence needed to take Siad into custody while he was alive, despite deploying significant surveillance resources against him.
“Daniel Siad was the subject of special investigative techniques, including telephone intercepts, although to date these have not produced evidence justifying his immediate arrest,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Financial records unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice paint a picture of a lucrative arrangement, showing Epstein paid Siad tens of thousands of dollars across their years of association.
Messages within those files include one from Siad describing a prospective introduction: “Cute French girl in Marrakesh… She said that she will (be) happy to meet you.”
The files also show Siad fielding a personal request from Epstein for help locating an assistant. A 2018 email from Siad described his search for a “good looking young assistant” intended for Epstein.
One exchange shows Siad sending Epstein a photograph of a woman he described as “very polite” with “potential” as a “model” or “assistant.” Epstein’s response came back curt: “Too old.”
According to the DOJ documents, Siad made a habit of forwarding Epstein photos of young women encountered during his travels, several of them captured in provocative poses.
French outlet BFMTV reported that Siad’s name surfaces more than 2,000 separate times across the released files.
Among those speaking out this week was Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a Russian-born model who has said Siad was the one who introduced her to Epstein, and that Epstein went on to abuse her.
“If it wasn’t for him, my life would have unfolded completely differently,” Pozhidaeva told CNN Wednesday, adding that Siad’s death forecloses any chance of him facing accountability. “I wanted for justice to be served, for there to be some kind of investigation and achieve some closure,” she said.
Siad’s attorney, Ménya Arab-Tigrine, defended her client’s conduct in a statement issued the same day, describing him as someone who willingly exposed himself to harsh media scrutiny in pursuit of transparency.
“We must await the autopsy results to confirm whether his body simply gave out,” Arab-Tigrine said, maintaining that Siad remained innocent and had never been formally implicated in any legal proceeding.
Paris’s chief prosecutor confirmed that the criminal probe launched this year continues to examine information tied specifically to Siad as part of the broader look into Epstein’s modeling-world connections.
Separate from the Epstein matter, Siad also faced a rape accusation from a model who said the assault took place while she worked in France back in 1990, an allegation Siad denied.
