At 22, Russian design student Julia Molchanova met Jeffrey Epstein by chance on the street. She spent years trapped in his ‘cult.’

The Wall Street Journal has published a major new investigation into the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender who died in 2019. The article’s central figure is Julia Molchanova, a 37-year-old born in Russia. She spoke to journalists for the first time about her complicated relationship with Epstein, the abuse she suffered at his hands, and her role in a class-action lawsuit against Bank of America filed by women who were harmed by the financier. Meduza summarizes the key points of the Wall Street Journal’s report.

Who is Julia Molchanova, and how did she meet Epstein

The Wall Street Journal does not detail Molchanova’s life before she met the disgraced financier, saying only that the two met in December 2011 in New York. Molchanova was 22 at the time, living in Russia and studying design at a university; she had come to the United States on a trip and spoke little English.

Epstein spotted her outside the Barneys department store on Madison Avenue, Molchanova said, complimented her — he “said something about her blue eyes,” she recalled — and pointed out his townhouse nearby as if it were a tourist attraction.

Using another young Russian-speaking woman as a translator, Epstein invited his new acquaintance to breakfast the next morning, where he peppered her with questions: “What did she want [in life]? What did she dream of doing?”

Molchanova told him she was interested in fashion design, and Epstein offered to help her get into the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York — “that was the hook,” she said, that the American used to reel her in. Back home, she signed up for additional sewing courses to prepare for the FIT program, and Epstein paid for them.

In January 2012, Epstein invited Molchanova back to New York, ostensibly to show her FIT, and put her up in an apartment where he housed many other women who had suffered abuse at his hands. During that trip, Molchanova was sexually abused for the first time. When she told Epstein she was unhappy with what he had done, he told her that sexual openness was part of American culture and that she would have to change to fit in, she told the Wall Street Journal.

The following month, Molchanova fell even more firmly under the financier’s control. She traveled to Paris with her boyfriend, who assaulted her during an argument, and, frightened, wrote to Epstein, who happened to be in the French capital as well. He helped her get away, paying for a plane ticket back to Russia.

How Molchanova ended up in Epstein’s “cult” and got pulled into his financial schemes

Growing increasingly attached to Epstein, Molchanova eventually moved to New York for good and began following the advice of her “mentor” in hopes of breaking into fashion design. But he never actually helped her get into FIT.

Instead, Epstein set out to groom Molchanova as his “assistant,” tightening his control over her life. She recalled that he expected her to thank him constantly, act cheerful, and be friendly with everyone. “It was like a cult,” Molchanova now says.

Epstein regularly coerced Molchanova and other women who had become dependent on him into sex, and he expected them to bring him new potential victims. Molchanova says she refused to take part in this kind of procuring, and his attitude toward her worsened as a result. He constantly demanded that she explain how she could be useful to him and often isolated her from the outside world.

Epstein also monitored her spending, Molchanova said, giving her less than $3,000 a month, though the amount varied. He dictated what she wore, how long her hair should be, which doctors she could see, and who she could spend time with. In 2013, he even arranged a sham marriage for Molchanova to another woman. He is known to have used this tactic more than once within his “cult.”

In 2014, Epstein’s lawyer, Darren Indyke, registered a company called JSC Interiors in Molchanova’s name — she said that Epstein presented it as a way to launch her design business. In reality, she carried out only a handful of design-related tasks, such as putting together flower arrangements, while Epstein kept JSC Interiors under his own control, using it to move money and carry out other transactions without the knowledge of its nominal founder.

Molchanova says she only learned about this years later. Bank of America, where the company held its account, clearly turned a blind eye to actions Epstein allegedly took in her name, she says, and she later became the lead plaintiff in a collective lawsuit against the bank brought by women harmed by the financier. A court recently approved a settlement in the case, under which Bank of America agreed to pay a total of $72.5 million to dozens of plaintiffs. The bank denies facilitating crimes related to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual abuse.

Indyke and Epstein’s accountant, Richard Kahn, also deny any wrongdoing. Their representatives told the Wall Street Journal that Molchanova never told them she had been abused and “appeared to be one of Epstein’s assistants working through an LLC that Epstein set up for interior design purposes.” Indyke and Kahn deny knowing that their employer had arranged a sham marriage for Molchanova or used accounts registered in her name.

How Molchanova angered Epstein, and what helped her escape the trap

Epstein never helped Molchanova build a career in design, but he did try to place her in other jobs, including at Next Management, the modeling agency run by well-known businesswoman Faith Kates.

In a May 2015 email, Kates told Epstein that Molchanova had said in a job interview that she did not want to sit at a desk all day and had never worked in an office before. Epstein reprimanded her for turning down a receptionist job. ”[I] am angry,” he wrote.

Next Management told reporters it never had any relationship with Epstein. “Faith Kates’ multi-decade long, personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was completely and absolutely unknown to Next Management and its top executives,” the company stated in a statement. Kates did not respond to requests for comment. She left Next Management in late 2025, after the U.S. Justice Department published part of her correspondence with Epstein.

Epstein also arranged internships for Molchanova through his friends, including, she said, one with publicist Peggy Siegal in 2016. Molchanova said she felt out of place there, hampered by her poor English. “If he really wanted to help, he would have sent me to learn English,” she said. Siegal did not respond to requests for comment. She has previously said she did not know about Epstein’s “nefarious behavior” and that associating with him was a mistake.

Years of total dependence on Epstein took a severe toll on Molchanova’s physical and mental health. Her weight fluctuated, and Epstein criticized her for it, calling her fat. At her lowest point, she said, she thought about suicide, and Epstein would not let her see a therapist. Her mental health deteriorated further after a tabloid published photos of her with Epstein in 2016: “I remember thinking that I’m trapped forever, and my life is over.”

In 2017, Epstein’s lawyer drew up paperwork so Molchanova could dissolve her sham marriage. She describes the years that followed as an attempt to break free from what she calls a “cult.” She got a boyfriend she hoped to marry as a way out, but Epstein kept calling her back and the abuse continued. She never told her boyfriend what was happening, and the two eventually broke up.

Molchanova did not tell a friend about her dire situation until early 2019, and the friend helped her come up with a plan to fight back. That March, she emailed Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, asking why her credit history showed credit cards she had never opened. She also demanded to see her tax returns and be removed as a founder of JSC Interiors. Kahn replied that she could hire someone else to handle the tax returns but promised to send her the paperwork to leave JSC Interiors.

Around the same time, Molchanova sent Epstein an email accusing him directly. He responded by inviting her to Palm Beach, but she did not go. “I thought for sure, at that moment, someone would find me on the bottom of his pool if I go,” she said. Lesley Groff, Epstein’s longtime assistant, tried to persuade her to call him, and another young woman from his circle called her as well. Despite the pressure, she never returned to the “cult.”

In her interview with the Wall Street Journal, Molchanova recalled that she had nicknamed Epstein “little bear.” In June 2019, she painted a picture depicting the arrest and beheading of a bear, with no way of knowing that Epstein would be taken into custody on July 6, and that weeks later he would be found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York.