Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, repeatedly contacted the FBI with reports of sexual crimes by financier Jeffrey Epstein, but the agency ignored these signals.
In 2005, Audra Lynn Christiansen, a 23-year-old Playboy model living in Hefner’s Beverly Hills mansion, informed him she had been raped and subjected to human trafficking by Epstein. Hefner used his influence to report Epstein to federal authorities.
A newly updated lawsuit filed in the Federal Court of the Southern District of Florida on behalf of 32 victims alleges that the FBI received numerous reports about Epstein’s crimes since 1996 but failed to take meaningful action until after Epstein’s death in prison. Christiansen was handed over to Macau gambling magnate Stanley Ho, who died in 2020.
The FBI contacted Christiansen only in October 2020—15 years after Hefner initiated his reports and following Epstein’s imprisonment.
Jordan Merson, the victims’ lawyer, stated: “The fact that the FBI is trying to use procedural formalities to avoid responsibility for failing to properly investigate Jeffrey Epstein for more than 20 years should be of deep concern to everyone.”
