New survivor accounts are providing a deeper look at how Jeffrey Epstein maintained control over women inside his orbit, describing an environment that operated less like a conventional workplace or social circle and more like a closed, “cult-like” system built around dependency, obedience and psychological manipulation.

Julia Molchanova, a Russian-born fashion designer who says she was sexually abused by Epstein after meeting him at 22, recently spoke publicly in detail about her experience for the first time. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Molchanova described becoming one of Epstein’s so-called assistants and eventually realizing that the position placed her inside a system where Epstein controlled significant parts of the women’s personal and financial lives.

“It was like a cult,” Molchanova said of the environment.

Her account adds to years of testimony and reporting from other survivors who have described a similar pattern: Epstein identifying young women’s ambitions or vulnerabilities, offering them opportunities, money or stability, and then gradually creating relationships in which leaving became increasingly difficult.

The comparison does not mean investigators have established that Epstein operated a formal religious cult. Rather, survivors and investigators have described methods resembling coercive-control techniques associated with destructive groups: isolation, financial dependence, rigid behavioral expectations, manipulation and pressure to recruit additional people into the same system.

Promises of a New Life

Molchanova met Epstein in New York in 2011.

She was 22 and wanted to become a fashion designer. According to her account, Epstein offered to help her pursue that ambition, paying for classes and helping her establish herself in New York.

The promised fashion career never developed the way she expected.

Instead, Molchanova says Epstein sexually abused her and pushed her into becoming one of his “assistants,” a role that came with increasingly strict expectations about her behavior and personal life.

Molchanova described rules governing how she interacted with Epstein and the people around him. She was expected to appear happy and friendly, repeatedly express gratitude toward him and conform to his expectations.

Epstein's influence allegedly extended further.

Molchanova says he dictated aspects of how she dressed, wore her hair, handled money and conducted relationships. She also described being pressured to bring other women into Epstein's orbit.

That recruitment structure was a crucial feature of Epstein's operation.

Some girls and young women who had themselves been recruited were paid to bring additional girls to Epstein, creating a system in which the distinction between victim and recruiter could become deliberately complicated. Survivor accounts have described women being drawn into Epstein's world through friends, job opportunities, modeling connections and other young women who were already involved with him.

Money Became Another Form of Control

Epstein's influence was not limited to sexual abuse.

Survivors have described him inserting himself into housing, education, employment and finances, creating relationships in which the same person allegedly abusing them could also become responsible for major parts of their economic survival.

Molchanova says companies and bank accounts were established in her name while she was within Epstein's orbit. She later discovered financial activity she says occurred without her knowledge, eventually becoming the lead plaintiff in litigation accusing Bank of America of facilitating Epstein's operation.

Bank of America ultimately agreed this year to a $72.5 million settlement resolving claims brought on behalf of Epstein survivors. The settlement did not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by the bank.

For survivors, the financial relationships help explain how Epstein could maintain influence without physically imprisoning the women around him.

Money could provide education, apartments, travel, employment or help for family members. But those benefits could simultaneously increase dependence on Epstein.

The result, according to survivor accounts, was an environment in which leaving could mean losing far more than access to one wealthy man.

It could mean losing a home, income, career opportunities or the future someone had been promised.

Other Survivors Have Described Similar Control

Molchanova's description is not isolated.

Another former assistant, identified publicly under the pseudonym “Anya,” described an elaborate system in which Epstein allegedly controlled women's money, healthcare and employment while demanding their availability and obedience.

Anya said approximately a dozen female assistants were housed in apartments connected to Epstein in Manhattan. She described Epstein studying individual vulnerabilities, creating rivalries between women and using his wealth and relationships with powerful people to reinforce the perception that he was untouchable.

According to her account, Epstein collected compromising material, demanded expressions of gratitude and pursued women who attempted to distance themselves from him.

Anya also made an especially striking claim: Epstein himself compared his operation to a cult and portrayed himself as its leader.

Her allegations went beyond financial and psychological control.

She said Epstein once pressured her to have a small tattoo surgically cut from her body rather than removed gradually by laser. She says the procedure left permanent scarring and that she underwent it again after Epstein was dissatisfied with the initial result.

The account illustrates the degree of influence survivors say Epstein accumulated over seemingly private decisions involving their own bodies.

The Recruitment System Blurred the Line Between Victim and Recruiter

One of the most effective parts of Epstein's operation was also one of its most disturbing.

Women and girls already inside his network could be encouraged or paid to recruit others.

That structure allowed Epstein's operation to expand through personal relationships rather than relying entirely on strangers approaching potential victims.

A young woman might be introduced by someone she trusted, receive money for a massage and then later be offered additional money to bring a friend.

The system created what investigators have described as a pyramid-like recruitment structure.

It also created lasting complications for survivors.

Someone could enter Epstein's world as a victim, become financially dependent on him and subsequently participate in bringing other women into the same environment.

That dynamic is one reason survivor accounts increasingly describe Epstein's organization not simply as a series of individual assaults, but as an interconnected system designed to perpetuate itself.

A Pattern Emerging More Clearly Years After Epstein's Death

Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death meant prosecutors never presented the full federal case against him to a jury.

But the investigation into the scope of his conduct has continued through civil litigation, document releases, congressional scrutiny and survivor testimony.

Recent interviews have increasingly shifted attention away from simply asking who associated with Epstein and toward examining how his operation actually functioned.

Those accounts describe a man who allegedly learned what individual women wanted—education, careers, money, housing, stability or connections—and positioned himself as the person capable of providing it.

Once that dependence existed, survivors say, the promises became intertwined with sexual abuse, behavioral rules, financial control and pressure to recruit others.

That is the context behind survivors' repeated use of the word “cult.”

There is no established evidence that Epstein operated a formal religious or ideological cult, and experts have cautioned against extending the description into unsupported claims about occult or ritual activity. But the accounts of women who lived inside his world describe something more specific and documented: a system of coercive control in which Epstein's money, influence and ability to manipulate individual vulnerabilities helped keep women tied to him even when no locked door physically prevented them from leaving.