French-Swedish model scout Daniel Siad, who had close ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead near Paris11:00, 22 Jul 2026Updated 11:34, 22 Jul 2026A French-Swedish model scout with close ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead near Paris.Daniel Siad, 69, was found dead at his home on Monday evening, the Nanterre prosecutor's office said on Wednesday. He was under investigation in France as one of several French men accused of aiding Epstein to traffic and abuse women.Siad faced rape allegations following the US Department of Justice's release of declassified Epstein files in late January, in which the model scout's name appeared in more than 1,000 documents."An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery," the prosecutor's office said.An autopsy will be carried out as part of the probe. According to preliminary information obtained by French newspaper Le Parisien, Siad is believed to have died of a cardiac arrest.Siad had not yet been questioned by investigators, but had denied the allegations, saying he wanted to be heard and give his version of events. He had insisted that the American convicted sex offender had "taken advantage of his trust".In the latest batch of files, Siad had likened his efforts to recruit women to fishing. "In This busyness I feel like fisherman some time I cache quick, some time no fish," he wrote to Epstein in an exchange in July 2014."I had 2 girls from Sweden, a Slovakian, 2 French and [redacted] the Russian, with whom you spoke and a beautiful Chinese named [redacted]," Siad wrote in the exchange, expressing frustration that Epstein had failed to turn up for a planned meeting. Epstein said in response: "I will reimburse you of course for any expenses."In 2020, French authorities arrested modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel following allegations he procured women for the US billionaire. He was found dead at the historic La Sante prison in Paris in 2022.Victims of Brunel's alleged abuse at the time expressed dismay that the 75-year-old, a well-known model scout in the 1980s and 1990s who ran different agencies in Paris and New York, would never face trial.They called his death as a double blow after Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting sex-trafficking charges.Article continues below"It makes me angry, because I’ve been fighting for years," Thysia Huisman, a Dutch former model who told police she was drugged and raped by Brunel as a teen, told The Associated Press in 2022. "For me, the end of this was to be in court. And now that whole ending - which would help form closure - is taken away from me."