New court documents allege that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner contacted the FBI in 2005 to report that a former Playmate had been sexually abused and trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, but that the agency failed to investigate the tips for about 15 years.
According to records cited in a lawsuit filed by Epstein survivors against the United States in the Southern District of Florida, former Playboy Playmate Audra Christiansen told Hefner in 2005 that she was an Epstein survivor. She asked Hefner to contact the FBI, believing authorities would be more likely to respond to him because of his prominence.
The complaint states that the FBI agreed to assist Christiansen and investigate her claims. However, the documents allege that Christiansen did not hear from the FBI until October 2020. “For about fifteen years, the FBI did not investigate Ms. Christiansen’s tips or follow up on her allegations,” the court records say.
Christiansen’s account, as described in the filing, states that she was raped by Epstein and trafficked for 10 years. The lawsuit claims the FBI violated mandatory policies requiring investigation of credible reports of child sexual abuse and trafficking, and that the failure to act created a foreseeable risk to future victims of Epstein’s trafficking operation.
The case is part of broader litigation by survivors accusing the government of negligence in handling early tips about Epstein. The government has moved to dismiss the suit, arguing that decisions on whether to investigate complaints fall under executive discretion and are not subject to judicial review.
Hefner died in 2017 at age 91. Epstein died in 2019 while in federal custody. The lawsuit continues to move through the courts, with survivors seeking damages related to the alleged investigative failures.
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