Epstein case: French model scout and alleged recruiter found deadDaniel Siad, 69, was found dead in his Paris suburban home. He was under investigation in France over accusations that he had helped sex offender Jeffrey Epstein find women to abuse, as well as rape allegations.A French modeling scout with close ties to deceased US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home outside Paris, prosecutors said on Wednesday, July 22. Daniel Siad, 69, was under investigation as one of several French men accused of aiding Epstein in trafficking and abusing women. Siad had not yet been questioned by investigators, but he had denied the allegations, saying he wanted to be heard and give his version of events.
"An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery," the Nanterre prosecutor's office said. An autopsy will be carried out as part of the probe. An autopsy will be carried out as part of the probe.
French investigators had been investigating Siad – who said he also held Swedish citizenship – over allegations including rape and human trafficking.
Siad's lawyer, Menya Arab-Tigrine, said her client had requested to give his side of the story before he died. "He is dead and he was innocent," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "If he died of a heart attack, the unbearable waiting, the pressure and the anxiety he suffered every day will have had something to do with it," she said.
The Paris prosecutor's office said it was dropping a probe targeting Siad after his death, but pursuing a wider probe into alleged human trafficking linked to Epstein, who had a flat in the French capital.
Siad's name appeared in more than 1,000 documents released as part of the declassified Epstein files. He likened his efforts to recruit women to fishing. "In this busyness I feel like a fisherman; sometimes I catch quick, sometimes no fish," Siad wrote to Epstein in 2014.
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