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Onetime Miami Beach modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, right, with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on Epstein\u2019s private jet. The photo was introduced at Maxwell\u2019s sex trafficking trial.<\/p>\n
U.S. Department of Justice<\/p>\n
During an explosive court hearing in the lawsuit accusing former Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo of using city resources to punish political opponents, an unexpected character with little connection to City Hall took center stage this week.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey Epstein, the multimillionaire who was indicted on sex trafficking charges<\/a> before his 2019 death, was the focus of the city\u2019s deposition of Maritza Vasquez, a witness for plaintiffs Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla. The Little Havana businessmen have alleged that Carollo weaponized government resources against them in an effort to destroy their businesses because they supported Carollo\u2019s opponent in the 2017 election.<\/p>\n Vasquez previously served on the city\u2019s code enforcement board in what was a volunteer position. The plaintiffs included Vasquez on their witness list, saying she would testify that during her time on the board, Carollo instructed her and other board members \u201cto give the maximum penalties to Plaintiffs\u201d and that Carollo tried to push her off the board when she \u201cstarted speaking out about the injustices of selectively treating Plaintiffs\u2019 properties unfairly.\u201d<\/p>\n But as the city pointed out shortly after starting Vasquez\u2019s deposition, she was also the longtime bookkeeper for Jean-Luc Brunel, a close Epstein associate who ran a modeling agency with an office in Miami Beach. Epstein admired Donald Trump\u2019s agency, T Models, and created his own with Brunel. That agency, called MC2 Model Management, allegedly doubled as a pipeline for trafficking victims. Brunel, who scouted and recruited girls \u2014 often from poor families \u2014 in countries such as Brazil, Ukraine and Russia, was with Epstein in Paris the day before Epstein was arrested in 2019.<\/p>\n Vasquez, who named Brunel godfather of her oldest son, previously told the Miami Herald as part of a 2019 investigation into MC2 that the agency housed girls who never really worked as models, but were instead transported to parties at Epstein\u2019s Palm Beach and Manhattan mansions.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Did a Miami-based modeling agency fuel Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s \u2018machine of abuse\u2019?<\/a><\/p>\n Vasquez was appointed to the city\u2019s code enforcement board in October 2020, more than a year after Epstein\u2019s death and at a time when her links to Epstein via Brunel were well documented. Brunel, accused by models of drugging and raping them, was arrested by French authorities<\/a> two months later in December 2020. In 2022, Brunel was found dead<\/a> in his French jail cell in what was ruled a suicide.<\/p>\n