WARNING: This text contains reports of sexual violence.
Marina Lacerda went public in September this year saying she was a victim of sexual violence at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein. Today, in an interview with BBC News Brasil, she claims that many other Brazilian women like her were in the billionaire’s house and were mistreated by him.
“At least 50 Brazilians, I think. I took some of these girls, and they took others,” Marina says.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges without bail, more than a decade after his conviction for procuring prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.
At the time of the abuse, Lacerda says he was living in Astoria, a neighborhood in New York’s Queens borough known for being home to a large Brazilian community.
BBC News Brasil revealed the connection 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 names and details that could give greater context to the information are redacted.
Marina is from Belo Horizonte (MG) and says she moved to the United States at the age of 8 to accompany her mother. She says that as a teenager, she worked several different jobs, but the money was not enough to support her. “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 comes with an invitation.
“This girl said to me, I know you’re going through a lot of trouble at home and I wanted to help you. There’s a super rich and powerful guy who lives in Manhattan and likes to get massages from young girls.”
She said she had previously worked temporarily as a receptionist in a spa in Koreatown, a district of Manhattan, and who would have learned the basics of massage. “Of course, I didn’t have any training, did I? But I told this friend 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, with a bra.”
“You’ve never made $300 in 40 minutes”
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 there, he saw that things would be very different from what his colleague was saying. “I was really nervous and anxious, but this friend said he was super nice,” she says.
“A cleaning lady came to pick me up, picked up this friend, put her in an elevator and we went to the third floor. Then a door opened, with a hallway. We walked to a massage room where everything was dark. The window was covered.”
Epstein would then have introduced himself for the first time. “He asked me 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 Epstein, trying to appear nice, wanted to touch her. “I said, ‘No.’ I said I didn’t feel comfortable.”
Then he says he noticed a change in time. The young woman who accompanied him would have reacted with irritation. “She looked at me angrily. I thought that wasn’t part of it,” he said.
According to Marina, Epstein then tried to minimize the situation. “He told me, ‘Give her some time to feel comfortable with me.’ So I changed places with my friend and he started touching her.”
She says Epstein’s position changed with his Brazilian colleague. “He was super aggressive.”
Marina says the situation quickly escalated and she was in shock. “It was something very intense. I didn’t know it was going to happen.”
When Epstein finished, they got dressed, received the money and left. “He said he’d see me again. I kept quiet, thinking I’d never see this guy again.”
When they left, Marina said she complained about the situation to her friend. This coworker retorted, “You’ve never made $300 in 40 minutes.”
“We had an argument, she threw the money in my face and told me to stop complaining, that I needed the money and that it would help me a lot.”
She says her friend convinced her and she returned several times. “You live in Astoria, you’re an immigrant, you don’t know anyone. This guy will help you.”
“We unfortunately took several Brazilian women”
Marina Lacerda says that after a few visits, the situation “degenerated.”
“It started to get complicated. He (Epstein) started asking me to take girls. I didn’t want my friends to know. But I had a friend who was being abused by her brother and lived with me for a while.” The friend agreed.
From that point on, the duo allegedly began looking for other girls for Epstein, Marina says.
“Girls who had to work because they were immigrants, they didn’t have immigration papers, they didn’t have family. A lot of Brazilians, Russians, Hispanics. We unfortunately welcomed a lot of Brazilians,” she says.
“Brazilians come here (to the United States) and don’t have papers. There’s no way to find a path in life. It’s very difficult to be an immigrant here, even more so as a Brazilian when you come alone.”
She says that over time, she began to have more freedom in the house and new girls asked to accompany her home. “He never said we were underage. He said he was getting a massage from a pretty girl.”
She also said she went to Epstein’s office and he gave her money when she needed it. “He was very manipulative. He always told us that the government and the bank belonged to him.”
She also reported an alleged episode of racism, during which she allegedly took a black Brazilian woman into her home. “He got mad at me. He said I should stop bringing black girls over. I don’t think they paid her.”
Over time, Lacerda says Epstein began to complain that she was only taking “old” girls and that she should look for younger girls. “I already felt terrible about accepting 15 or 16 year old girls.”
Looking back on the situation, she complains about the lack of support from her family members with teenagers like her.
“I went to Brazilian clubs and I saw girls, 14, 15, 16 years old, with no identity. Where are our mothers? I think my mother made a big mistake. If she had given me a legal path, had found a way to not let me be free, 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 from 14 to 17.”
Statements to the FBI
Marina says she was approached by the FBI to tell her what she knew about Epstein in 2008, but at the time she was afraid to speak out. She reports that she was then living with other Brazilian women in a house, also in Astoria.
“They were very aggressive with me. They came in asking me to talk, that I needed to talk to them, that there was an affair with Epstein. I had no idea what was going on.”
Lacerda says he called Epstein’s secretary at the time to ask what was going on and promised to send a lawyer to help. He was told never to call that number again.
“I was very scared, I didn’t say everything. The lawyer wasn’t for me, it was for Epstein, to protect him.”
In 2019, the FBI searched for Marina again. This time she decided to speak in more detail. Epstein died the same year, in July, in prison.
“They wanted to know who I had taken there (home). When I gave my statement, I didn’t remember much until then. Trauma takes its toll. I was very nervous.”
Attacks after decision to go public
In September of this year, Marina Lacerda made her story public for the first time.
She gave an interview to US television channel ABC News and also participated in a press conference with eight other women who accuse Epstein of abuse.
The act, which demanded the disclosure of all documents relating to the affair, took place before the US Congress in Washington.
From then on, she decided she needed to speak out more about the affair: she created pages on Instagram and TikTok and hired someone to help her with the content. His goal, he says, is to make more people aware of physical and psychological abuse.
“After breaking my silence, I didn’t stop. I opened the stands and started speaking out on podcasts. I’m talking about how to teach our children to say no. Sexual, emotional, financial and physical abuse starts with us. What are you letting happen. Many parents do not have this knowledge. »
Since she started giving interviews, she regrets being criticized on social media.
“People are attacking saying that I stayed, that I came (home). Why do you think the other Brazilians (Epstein’s victims) don’t want to say anything? The family will attack. When I spoke about Brazil, my family criticized me harshly. And listen, my family in Brazil was never involved in anything that happened here.”
She said the family believed her reports had a political goal.
“They thought it had something to do with Lula or Bolsonaro. I said, guys, I don’t care about Lula and Bolsonaro. Here, I don’t care about Trump. There are people asking me about Lula. I don’t care. I don’t know anything about Brazil.”
She says she reads some comments on posts about her and many are offensive, which may discourage other victims from telling their stories.
Marina says she constantly receives reports from other Latinas who have been abused, but don’t want to go public for fear of criticism.
“Just look at the attacks I’m getting. It would be more than fair if they said something, but I can’t ask that of anyone.”
About The Author
