French ex-modeling boss accused of raping minors
Published 17 Jul, 2026 17:29 | Updated 17 Jul, 2026 18:30
Several women have accused Gerald Marie, the former head of Elite Model Management's European operations, of rape and human trafficking in a criminal complaint filed in France. At least one of the plaintiffs alleges she was sexually abused while still a minor.
Marie, whose agency represented some of the world's biggest supermodels, including Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, and Cindy Crawford, has faced similar accusations from more than a dozen women over the past several years. French prosecutors previously investigated the claims but closed the case in 2023 because the alleged offenses, dating largely to the 1980s and early 1990s, fell outside the statute of limitations. Marie has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Six women, most of them Americans, filed the latest complaint on Wednesday, according to their lawyer, Mathias Darmon. Two are accusing Marie publicly for the first time, including one who alleges she was underage when she was assaulted.
The complaint alleges that Marie, while running one of the world's leading modeling agencies in Paris, “used the authority, influence and power conferred on him by his position to obtain forced sexual relations with numerous young women, some of whom were underage,” according to excerpts published by Le Monde and AFP.
Responding to the new filing, Marie's lawyer, Celine Bekerman, said that there was “no reason whatsoever to call on the courts to again revisit a case that is both time-barred and closed, nearly 40 years after the alleged events.”
Last month, former supermodel Carre Otis filed a separate complaint in Paris accusing Marie of repeatedly raping her when she was 17 and trafficking her to wealthy men in Europe. Otis first made the allegations in her 2011 memoir Beauty, Disrupted.
Earlier this year, 14 women, including former BBC journalist Lisa Brinkworth, also urged French authorities to investigate Marie over alleged links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In 2020, dozens of former models from the US, Canada, and Sweden told The Guardian that they had been sexually assaulted after Marie invited them to private meetings at his apartments in the 1980s. Several said they did not come forward earlier because they feared it would end their modeling careers, while others accused him of exploiting their youth and poor command of French.
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Andrew Tate, bro Tristan ordered to remain in federal jail — as judge considers UK extradition on sex abuse charges
Misogynist influencer sibs Andrew and Tristan Tate went to Florida court Monday to fight their extradition to the UK on new rape and sex-trafficking charges, as their lawyer called the case a “stitch-up job.”
The controversial influencer brothers made a brief appearance at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. US Courthouse in downtown Miami after their arrest Saturday.
The pair must remain behind bars as the judge weighs their request.
Their lawyer, Joseph McBride, later claimed at a press conference that his clients were being held in solitary confinement at FDC Miami and that their treatment amounted to illegal “torture.
“It’s garbage, it’s a stitch-up job,” McBride added of the case.
Andrew, 39, and Tristan, 38, were hit with multiple fresh accusations over the weekend by Bedfordshire Police in southeastern England involving four new alleged victims — charges that now bring the number of raps against them there up to 59, Time reported.
The allegations include rape, assault, trafficking and offenses related to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography,” and span 2010 to 2017, a rep for the force said.
Andrew is accused of repeatedly placing a webcam performer in chokeholds until she passed out and raping her in a horrifying attack in her Bedford, England, home in 2015, according to a complaint unsealed on Monday and obtained by the New York Times.
Another woman alleged that the manosphere influencer visited her home in Manchester and choked her to the point she was afraid he was “going to kill her.” The pair had had consensual sex in July 2014 before the alarming encounter occurred, the document detailed.
Andrew is currently facing seven counts of rape, three counts of sex trafficking, three counts of assault, and 19 more charges connected to the “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography,” the outlet reported.
His brother, Tristan — who is facing one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape and three counts of sex trafficking — was also accused of regularly choking, beating and raping a woman with whom he was in a romantic relationship in 2012 and 2013, the filing said.
The woman told authorities that he choked her to the point she was unconscious, gave her a black eye and whipped her with a belt on multiple occasions, the complaint detailed.
The Tates, who have dual British and US citizenship, are already facing charges of rape, bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other alleged UK victims between 2012 and 2015.
The siblings had been living in Romania since 2016 and were arrested there in 2022 on separate allegations of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation.
But as their Romanian case became bogged down in legal proceedings, local authoriites lifted their travel ban on the pair, paving the way for them to visit Miami.
The Tates, who strongly deny any wrongdoing, have built an empire in recent years promoting misogyny and wealth to an audience of millions of followers, many of them young men and teens.
Their lawyer said in a statement Saturday that he believes the new charges were “greenlighted by a low-level functionary” at the US Department of Justice without input from leadership.
The Justice Department said the arrests were approved by leadership of its Criminal Division.
Describing the new victims in the UK as “ghosts” and “phantoms,” McBride claimed Monday that Saturday’s arrests were “politically motivated,” blaming outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“[Starmer] is mad that the Tates had a lot to do with his fall,” McBride said, claiming the case was the “last vestige” of a “failed” prime minister.
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