“I was trapped. I had no transportation, no money, and he threatened me with physical harm if I ever told anyone.”
With those words, Epstein survivor Rina Oh revisited a chapter she says silenced her for decades, one she now believes the world can no longer ignore.
Oh, now in her late 40s, says she was just 21, an aspiring art student struggling to build a career, when she was drawn into the orbit of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in the late 1990s.
He offered her what sounded like a lifeline – a scholarship to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts, reported the Sun.
“He said, ‘I’m offering you a scholarship with no strings attached, you never have to see me again’,” she recalled. “But he kept calling me to see him again.”
When she did not volunteer to visit, she said, the offer was withdrawn. “He was like, ‘Well, you’re not being obedient, so I’m going to take that away’.”
Speaking exclusively to India Today from New York, Oh described how a trip to Florida marked the moment she realised “this was all going horribly wrong”. Inside Epstein’s estate, she says she found herself isolated, disoriented and afraid.
“I didn’t really know where I was. It was my first time in that part of the country,” she recalled. “There was another girl there. Others were able to freely go in and out of the estate. I couldn’t. I had no transportation and no money.”
She described what she called a “protocol” at Epstein’s homes where most visitors ended up in the massage room. Studying the books on his coffee table, his expressions, his phone calls, she sensed early on that “something is off about this man”.
Then came the warning.
“He disclosed some of the things that he did overseas and then threatened me with physical harm if I ever told anyone,” she said.
‘ANDREW ARREST IS JUST THE BEGINNING’
Oh was reacting to the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over alleged links to the Epstein case.
“It didn’t give me a sense of closure, but I feel that this is just the beginning,” she said. “It sets an example for what should be done here in the United States.”
She accused the US government of failing to act. “All they’re doing is denying accountability.”
According to Oh, anyone whose name appears in the Epstein files must face questioning. “Anyone who’s named in those files needs to be questioned under oath if they haven’t provided testimony.”
She called for all redacted names in the files to be made public. “The names are some of the richest and most powerful people in the world.”
She said even political leaders should not be exempt. Referring to US President Donald Trump, she said: “He definitely knew a lot. He definitely saw a lot. His name appears I think he absolutely is a witness. Should he testify under oath? I think he should.”
‘HE WAS A RAGING NARCISSIST’
Oh described Epstein as “a raging narcissist” who relied not only on physical control but on psychological domination.
“It wasn’t just physical abuse. It was psychological, emotional. There was a lot of devaluation,” she said. “Sometimes it takes decades to recover from this.”
She believes Epstein entrapped not only victims but also members of his powerful network. “Everyone in his network they’ve been entrapped in this ring that he created. Whether they committed crimes or not, that needs to be investigated.”
Oh eventually broke away, finding her own job in fashion PR. “I didn’t like the idea of someone controlling me,” she said. She alleges Epstein later sought invitations to fashion shows as she rebuilt her life. She never invited him.
In 2019, she waived her anonymity to push for his arrest, saying she “sacrificed” her privacy and safety to support other victims. She also filed defamation lawsuits after a chapter about her in an unpublished memoir by fellow accuser Virginia Giuffre was, she says, “fabricated”, forcing her to prove she was a victim, not a perpetrator.
‘THE PRIVILEGED GET AWAY WITH EVERYTHING’
Oh believes wealth and influence have shielded many from scrutiny.
“The privileged, they get away with almost anything and everything,” she said. “They have the means to afford the best legal teams. They’re able to use every loophole that exists in US law or international law.”
“There has been no accountability so far. I do see a lot of European nations who are taking action immediately. I want to see that here.”
She also questioned why more than two million files linked to the investigation remain unreleased.
“There’s over 2 million files they’re not releasing right now, and I want to know what’s in it,” she said. “We don’t have the answers until we see the remainder.”
“There are 10 co-conspirators. There needs to be full transparency into what they did,” she added, saying she suspects the trafficking operation may still have surviving elements.
“In terms of closure, I don’t think I’ll get closure until we find out what remains of this operation, because I believe it still exists.”
For Rina Oh, justice will not come from a single arrest or a single headline. It will begin, she says, only when every name is spoken and every question is answered under oath.
– Ends
