Playboy founder Hugh Hefner repeatedly called the FBI in 2005 demanding that Jeffrey Epstein be held accountable for sexual assault, according to the NYP. The move was prompted by a confession from a Playboy Playmate of the Month who stated that the disgraced financier had raped her and trafficked her.
These shocking details emerged from a new lawsuit filed by 32 of Epstein's victims against the United States.
The victim was Audra Lynn Christiansen (Miss October 2003). When she was 23 years old and living at Hefner's famous Beverly Hills mansion, she turned to the publisher for protection.
Christiansen asked Hugh to intervene on her behalf in 2005, hoping the media mogul had enough authority and law enforcement connections to finally get her complaint heard.
In addition to the accusations against Epstein, the woman told Hefner she had also been trafficked to another influential friend of the publisher — Macau billionaire Stanley Ho, known as the "godfather of Chinese gambling" (who passed away in 2020).
"Mr. Hefner called the FBI multiple times on behalf of Ms. Christiansen to report Jeffrey Epstein," the lawsuit states.
These facts were included in an amended lawsuit filed in May in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Epstein's victims accuse the FBI of inaction, noting that the agency ignored numerous reports about the financier's crimes starting as early as 1996.
"The fact that the FBI is trying to use procedural loopholes to avoid accountability for its investigative failures regarding Jeffrey Epstein for over 20 years should be deeply alarming," said plaintiffs' attorney Jordan Merson.
Audra Christiansen herself (now 46, who also appeared on the reality show The Girls Next Door) shared that FBI agents only contacted her in October 2020 — after Epstein's death — to follow up on the information Hefner provided 15 years prior. According to her, she was introduced to Epstein by her own agents after they saw her photo in the magazine.
The FBI attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed in June, arguing that the agency "is not obligated to investigate every complaint it receives." Law enforcement has never publicly commented on Hugh Hefner's phone calls.
Hugh Hefner himself, who passed away in 2017, also faced serious allegations five years after his death when former models labeled him a "predator" in the docuseries Secrets of Playboy. However, during his lifetime, he was never formally charged with rape or put on trial.
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