Modeling agent scrambles to explain his 'potty mouth' emails ​to Epstein

For years, Ramsey Elkholy had a simple business proposition.

The New York City modeling agent had a roster of young women and an eye for opportunity. Jeffrey Epstein was a well-connected financier with ties to Victoria's Secret, Vera Wang and the upper reaches of the fashion world. Elkholy would bring Epstein women, Epstein would help those women — and by extension, Elkholy — get work. Everyone, in theory, would benefit.

"Everybody wanted to be in the room with Epstein," Elkholy told The Washington Post in a recent interview. "It's just the kind of thing where everyone's trying to get something out of it."

The Justice Department's release of Epstein's files has already claimed high-profile casualties, triggering resignations and public shaming among the financier's most prominent associates. But a review of those files by the Post reveals a parallel story — one populated not by celebrities and heads of state, but by lesser-known operators like Elkholy who quietly built Epstein's access to young women in the years after his 2009 release from jail.

Elkholy described potential introductions in explicitly sexual terms, sending photos of women and assessing their physical attributes using crude language, and while he is now "ashamed" of what he wrote, the former agent insists he’s “1,000 percent sure” he did nothing illegal and claims that Epstein never paid him.

“The reason why all of this bodes so terribly for me is because of my potty mouth,” Elkholy told the Post. “I was just being stupid, actually, because all of that language was not based on anything that was happening.”

Elkholy's emails with Epstein span more than a decade and discuss potential meetings with at least two dozen women, including one as young as 18. In one message sent shortly after Epstein's release from jail, Elkholy described a potential introduction as a "coming out gift," calling the woman's body "amazing." In another, he noted that a 23-year-old might be "on the old side" for Epstein — a comment he has not directly addressed.

He has, however, addressed nearly everything else. In an hour-long interview with the Post, Elkholy insisted he never facilitated abuse, always chaperoned the women he introduced to Epstein, and was motivated entirely by professional ambition. He said two models he represented secured Victoria's Secret deals after meeting Epstein — deals from which he would have earned a 10 percent commission.

"If a model gets Victoria's Secret," he said, "her career is made."

What Elkholy cannot as easily explain away is the gap between his emails and his explanations. He acknowledged fabricating a claim that a Russian supermodel had agreed to meet Epstein, and he said a scouting trip to Europe he offered to take on Epstein's behalf "never happened." He claims his crude language was intended to impress Epstein rather than reflect reality.

"Agents lie," he said. "All modeling agents will say what they need to say."

A Polish model told the Wall Street Journal in 2023 that Elkholy had introduced her to Epstein and that Epstein subsequently sexually exploited her. Elkholy said he could not identify the model and suggested that if she had chosen to enter a "relationship" with Epstein, that was not his responsibility.

Since the release of the Epstein files, Elkholy has moved to California, where he works as a musician. He told the Post that the resulting media coverage has, unexpectedly, increased his band Monotronic's streaming numbers.

"I just wish all this would go away," he said.

For at least one woman, it already has. Ruslana Korshunova, a 20-year-old model from Kazakhstan whom Elkholy represented, died in 2008 in what authorities ruled a suicide. Flight logs show she had flown on Epstein's private plane at age 18 — months before Elkholy signed her. Two years after her death, Epstein noted the anniversary in an email, and Elkholy replied that she was "still so very young."

That same day, he emailed Epstein about an 18-year-old he had met at an Apple store.

“Only about 5′8 but beautiful, thin and curvy,” Elkholy wrote, adding that she was a summer worker at Six Flags who was looking for opportunities. “I think you will like her."