Paolo Zampolli has one of those biographies that sounds as if several different people’s résumés were accidentally combined. He has been a modeling agent, New York socialite, real-estate dealmaker, friend of Donald and Melania Trump, Caribbean diplomat, United Nations fixture, environmental advocate and business associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Now he is also a presidential envoy.
For years, Zampolli was mostly a supporting character in other people’s stories. He was frequently described as the modeling agent who introduced Donald Trump to Melania Knauss. His name appeared in society pages, at Trump events and around international diplomatic gatherings. He was close enough to powerful people to appear repeatedly in photographs and profiles, but rarely important enough to become the focus himself.
When you follow Zampolli’s career from the modeling industry of 1990s New York through Jeffrey Epstein’s world, Caribbean diplomacy and ultimately into the U.S. government, however, a more interesting story emerges. It is not simply a story about whom Paolo Zampolli knew. It is a story about access, and about one man’s remarkable ability to turn access to beautiful people, wealthy people and powerful people into access to institutions.
The Model Agent
Born in Milan in 1970, Zampolli arrived in New York and built ID Model Management during the 1990s. ID became part of an international modeling industry that routinely brought young women from Europe, South America and elsewhere to New York. Some were teenagers arriving in a foreign country with little money and few personal connections outside the modeling business.
The business involved much more than taking photographs and booking runway shows. Agencies could help foreign models obtain work authorization, arrange housing, advance expenses and introduce them to photographers, designers, celebrities and wealthy clients. A successful agency therefore occupied an unusually influential position in the lives of young models trying to establish themselves in New York.
Zampolli operated directly inside that system. A 2001 Vanity Fair profile visited one of ID Models’ model apartments, where four aspiring models between 17 and 21 years old were living. They had come from places including Brazil, Sweden and Siberia. Agency apartments were normal within the modeling industry, but they also illustrate how much of a young foreign model’s life could become connected to her agency. The agency might provide access to work, housing, professional contacts and, in some cases, immigration sponsorship.
Zampolli has said that ID Models sponsored Melania Knauss for an H-1B fashion-model visa after she came to New York in 1996. That relationship would eventually change his life.
Enter Donald Trump
Zampolli has long maintained that he introduced Donald Trump and Melania Knauss at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998. The precise mythology surrounding their first meeting has become surprisingly contentious over the years, but there is no serious dispute about the larger relationship. Zampolli represented Melania, knew Donald Trump and became a longtime member of their social circle.
Zampolli attended Donald and Melania’s 2005 wedding, and photographs and reporting place him repeatedly around the family in subsequent years. His relationship with Trump survived Zampolli’s transition away from modeling and into real estate, international development and diplomacy. Eventually, that relationship would help carry him all the way into government.
Before that happened, however, another wealthy man entered Zampolli’s modeling world. His name was Jeffrey Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein Wasn’t Just at the Same Parties
When I first researched Zampolli, I was cautious about his connection to Epstein. That caution was warranted. People often build enormous conspiracy theories by discovering that two wealthy New Yorkers attended the same parties or knew some of the same people. Proximity is not evidence of criminal involvement, and moving through the same Manhattan social circles as Jeffrey Epstein does not make someone complicit in Epstein’s crimes.
Newly available records have changed what we can responsibly say about Zampolli and Epstein, however. Their relationship was more substantial than merely appearing in the same social orbit.
In 2004, Zampolli and Epstein jointly attempted to purchase Elite Model Management, one of the most famous modeling agencies in the world. This is not a rumor extracted from an Epstein document twenty years later. British Vogue reported at the time that Zampolli and financier Jeffrey Epstein had been outbid for the bankrupt agency. The attempted acquisition means that Epstein and Zampolli were prepared to become business partners in a major international modeling company. (vogue.co.uk)
That fact alone substantially changes the characterization of their relationship. But it is not the most troubling connection that has emerged.
Epstein Inside ID Models
Released FBI interview records have added an entirely new dimension to the story. A former foreign model told FBI investigators that she was represented by ID Models and lived in agency-arranged housing near the company’s Varick Street offices. According to her account, Jeffrey Epstein visited Zampolli at ID Models while casting auditions were taking place and looked through models’ portfolios.
The woman told investigators that Epstein noticed a revealing photograph of her in one of those portfolios. She subsequently went out socially with Zampolli and Epstein and was later invited to Epstein’s Manhattan residence. According to her FBI account, Epstein initiated sexual contact during a massage-like encounter. She told him to stop and remembered becoming emotional afterward.
Eventually, however, she went to work for Epstein and became one of his assistants. That sequence deserves attention. A young foreign woman entered New York through the modeling industry, was represented by ID Models and lived in agency housing. Epstein encountered her through that environment, viewed her photographs and subsequently brought her into his private world. She eventually became part of his staff.
None of that proves that Paolo Zampolli knowingly supplied women to Jeffrey Epstein. There is currently no evidence establishing that, and Zampolli has strongly rejected suggestions of improper collaboration. He has, however, acknowledged that Epstein visited ID Models.
That distinction matters, but so does the documented access. Epstein was not simply meeting random models at New York parties. According to an FBI witness, he was physically inside a modeling agency during casting and looking through portfolios. Zampolli ran that agency.
And There Was Another ID Model
A second former ID Models model separately appears in FBI records concerning Epstein. She described living in an ID model apartment and eventually leaving the agency. Later, while working elsewhere, she said she was approached by a woman offering her money to give a massage to a wealthy man. That man was Jeffrey Epstein.
The woman told investigators that Epstein sexually assaulted her. Here again, an important distinction is necessary. The available evidence does not show that Zampolli sent this woman to Epstein. She appears to have encountered Epstein’s recruitment system after leaving ID Models, so her experience cannot responsibly be presented as evidence that ID Models recruited women for Epstein.
But it adds context that is difficult to ignore. We now have two different women who passed through Zampolli’s agency and subsequently entered Epstein’s orbit. One says Epstein actually encountered her through the ID Models environment itself. The other appears to have entered his recruitment system independently after leaving the agency.
This does not establish that ID Models was an Epstein trafficking operation. It does establish that Epstein’s relationship with the modeling world surrounding Zampolli deserves considerably more investigation than it previously received.
Why the Modeling Industry Matters
To understand why Epstein’s presence inside a modeling agency matters, you have to understand how the industry worked. Young women were routinely recruited internationally. Some arrived in the United States barely out of high school, and some were minors. Agencies could arrange visas, apartments, airfare, photographs, transportation and other expenses, then deduct some of those costs from future modeling earnings.
A model could therefore arrive in New York dependent on the same organization for her housing, employment, immigration situation and access to an unfamiliar industry. None of those practices was inherently criminal. They were ordinary features of the modeling business. Together, however, they created an enormous power imbalance between young models and the people controlling their careers.
Jeffrey Epstein understood that world very well. His relationship with French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel eventually provided him with another connection to international models. Records and testimony show that Epstein financially supported Brunel’s MC2 agency, including expenses associated with bringing foreign models into the United States.
The larger modeling network deserves its own investigation, and it will get one. For now, the important point is that Zampolli’s relationship with Epstein existed inside an industry that already gave powerful men unusual access to young women from around the world.
The Relationship Didn’t End With Modeling
The failed Elite purchase occurred in 2004. Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to charges involving a minor and became a registered sex offender. One might reasonably assume that people who had known him casually through New York society would distance themselves after that.
Documents indicate that Zampolli’s world continued to intersect with Epstein’s afterward. A 2010 email contained in the released Epstein material shows an intermediary sending United Nations-related material to Epstein at Zampolli’s request.
That detail is significant not because the material itself was necessarily suspicious, but because of the date. Epstein had already been convicted. Whatever the nature of Zampolli’s relationship with him, the documentary trail did not end with the failed Elite deal or with Epstein’s conviction.
By then, Zampolli himself was moving into a very different world: diplomacy.
From Models to Diplomats
Zampolli eventually became associated with the Caribbean nation of Dominica and served in diplomatic capacities connected with its United Nations mission. He became particularly involved with ocean and environmental initiatives, developing an identity that looked very different from his earlier career running a Manhattan modeling agency.
At first glance, the transition from modeling agent to diplomat seems extraordinary. In practice, many of the skills and relationships transferred remarkably well. Modeling had put Zampolli around wealthy international clients and celebrities. Real estate put him around investors. Trump connected him with political power. Diplomacy put him around governments, and environmental advocacy gave him access to the United Nations.
Zampolli became particularly associated with ocean diplomacy. It was in that world that another familiar figure appeared again: Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ghislaine Maxwell Reinvents Herself Too
After Epstein’s 2008 conviction, Maxwell increasingly promoted herself publicly as an environmental advocate. In 2012, she founded the TerraMar Project, an organization ostensibly devoted to protecting the world’s oceans. Zampolli’s diplomatic and environmental work overlapped with TerraMar and Maxwell’s U.N.-connected ocean advocacy.
Again, this does not establish that Zampolli participated in Epstein’s crimes or knew about them. It does, however, add another piece to an increasingly long relationship between these circles. The Zampolli-Epstein connection was not confined to one Manhattan nightclub or one photograph at a party. There was modeling, a proposed business acquisition, later communication and eventual overlap with Maxwell in the world of international diplomacy and environmental advocacy.
Viewed separately, each connection can look incidental. Viewed chronologically, the pattern is harder to dismiss as mere social proximity.
Diplomacy and Private Business Begin to Overlap
Zampolli’s relationship with Dominica becomes even more interesting when his private business activities are added to the picture. In 2015, Zampolli entered an agreement connected to development of the Cabrits Resort & Spa Kempinski in Dominica. Years later, that arrangement became the subject of litigation.
A New York Supreme Court decision confirms that Zampolli claimed a contractual interest tied to the development and sought discovery in connection with an international arbitration concerning the project. The development itself was connected to Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment program. (nycourts.gov)
Citizenship by Investment, commonly called CBI, allows qualifying foreign investors to obtain citizenship by making approved investments or contributions. Such programs are legal and exist in multiple countries. The existence of a CBI program is not itself evidence of corruption.
Zampolli’s position nevertheless raises an obvious question about the boundary between diplomacy and private business. A man serving diplomatically for Dominica was simultaneously financially involved in a Dominican development connected to a program attracting foreign investors seeking Dominican citizenship. That does not prove wrongdoing, but it is exactly the kind of overlap between public position and private financial interest that deserves scrutiny.
Then Amanda Ungaro Started Talking
For years, Amanda Ungaro was another largely unexplained figure in Zampolli’s biography. The Brazilian model was his longtime partner and the mother of his son. She also eventually became a diplomat, receiving a United Nations-related appointment from Grenada in 2014.
From the outside, Paolo and Amanda looked like an unusual international power couple: two people with roots in the modeling world who had somehow transformed themselves into diplomats representing small Caribbean nations. Their relationship eventually collapsed, and Amanda’s account of their life together became considerably darker.
Ungaro has accused Zampolli of physical, sexual and psychological abuse during their relationship. Zampolli denies those allegations. The two became embroiled in a bitter custody dispute over their son, and in June 2025 Amanda was arrested in Florida in connection with allegations involving unlicensed cosmetic medical procedures.
What happened next is documented far more clearly.
The Call to ICE
After learning that Amanda was in jail, Zampolli contacted a senior official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to reporting originally conducted by The New York Times, based on records and a person familiar with the communications, Zampolli told the official that Ungaro lacked lawful immigration status while the two were fighting over custody of their son. (gvwire.com)
A senior ICE official subsequently contacted the agency’s Miami office regarding her case. Ungaro was transferred into immigration custody rather than simply being released after posting bail, remained detained for months and was ultimately deported to Brazil.
Zampolli acknowledges contacting ICE but disputes the characterization that he was attempting to manipulate the immigration system to gain an advantage in the custody fight. He says he was seeking information about what would happen to his son. The Department of Homeland Security has also denied improper political interference.
The contact itself, however, is documented. By this point Zampolli was no longer merely a wealthy private citizen with powerful friends. He was working for the president of the United States.
From Trump Friend to Presidential Envoy
Donald Trump’s return to the White House elevated Zampolli again. In March 2025, Trump appointed his longtime friend as a special representative for global partnerships.
The appointment completed an extraordinary transformation. The man who once ran model castings in Manhattan was now representing American interests abroad. His relationship with Trump clearly mattered. Zampolli had known the family for decades, was credited with introducing Donald and Melania, had remained within Trump social circles and had received appointments as Trump’s political career expanded.
Now he possessed something considerably more valuable than social access: governmental authority.
That makes scrutiny of his private relationships and business dealings more important, not less.
Now Another Woman Has Come Forward
The story changed again on September 3, 2026, when a woman named Victoria Drake filed a federal civil lawsuit against Zampolli in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit exists as Drake v. Zampolli, case number 1:26-cv-07582, and has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams. (dockets.justia.com)
According to reporting on the complaint, Drake alleges that Zampolli invited her, a friend and two junior United Nations ambassadors to his Manhattan residence and raped her there. Zampolli has denied wrongdoing. (innercitypress.com)
An allegation in a civil complaint is not proof that the alleged event occurred. No court has found Zampolli liable for Drake’s allegation, and the lawsuit is at the very beginning of the legal process.
The lawsuit does, however, change the context surrounding Amanda Ungaro’s allegations. Ungaro is no longer the only woman publicly accusing Zampolli of sexual misconduct. That does not prove either woman’s account, but it makes it increasingly difficult to characterize the allegations solely as accusations arising from one bitter relationship and custody dispute.
What We Know, and What We Don’t
This story sits dangerously close to territory where facts, rumors and guilt by association can easily become mixed together. The distinctions therefore matter.
There is currently no publicly available evidence establishing that Paolo Zampolli participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. There is no evidence establishing that ID Models functioned as an Epstein trafficking operation. Nor does attending an event with Epstein or Maxwell establish that someone knew what Epstein was doing. Those would be enormous claims, and the evidence currently available does not support making them.
The opposite extreme is no longer defensible either. It is no longer accurate to describe Zampolli as someone who merely happened to know Jeffrey Epstein socially.
Zampolli and Epstein attempted to purchase Elite Model Management together. (vogue.co.uk) An FBI witness says Epstein visited ID Models during castings and looked through model portfolios. A woman Epstein encountered through that modeling environment later became part of his staff. Records indicate continued communication after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. Zampolli subsequently operated in diplomatic and environmental circles that overlapped with Ghislaine Maxwell’s TerraMar project.
These facts do not prove criminal complicity. They establish a substantially closer and longer-running relationship than the vague phrase “social acquaintance” suggests.
The Pattern Is Access
This is where Zampolli’s story becomes more revealing than a simple list of famous people he knew. His career can be understood as a progression in which one form of access repeatedly created another.
Modeling placed Zampolli around young models, photographers, designers and celebrities. That world gave him access to wealthy businessmen and investors. Trump connected him with political power. Real estate expanded his international business relationships. Small Caribbean governments provided diplomatic credentials. Diplomacy opened doors at the United Nations. Eventually, Donald Trump gave him an official role representing the United States.
At almost every stage, Zampolli appears to have converted social capital into something more institutional.
That does not make him a criminal mastermind. In some ways, it makes him more representative of how modern power actually works. Power does not always arrive through elections, corporate titles or obvious government hierarchies. Sometimes it moves through introductions, dinner parties, private clubs, model castings, real-estate deals, diplomatic appointments and phone calls to people inside government agencies.
One relationship opens the door to another. Eventually, the person who spent decades standing beside powerful people becomes powerful himself.
The Questions That Remain
Paolo Zampolli’s story is far from finished, and the newly released records create more questions than they answer. We still need to know much more about Jeffrey Epstein’s access to ID Models. How often was he there? Which models did he meet? Did anyone at the agency know that women encountered through the modeling world were subsequently entering Epstein’s private orbit? What exactly was the business relationship between Zampolli and Epstein beyond their attempt to buy Elite?
There are equally important questions about what happened later. Why did communication apparently continue after Epstein became a convicted sex offender? What was the full extent of Zampolli’s relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell? How did his diplomatic positions with Dominica intersect with his private financial interests there? And what exactly happened when a presidential envoy contacted a senior immigration official about the woman fighting him for custody of their child?
Those questions do not require conspiracy theories. They require documents, witnesses, court records and careful reporting. Increasingly, those records are appearing.
This Is Only Part One
There is another reason this investigation cannot end with Paolo Zampolli. Following him led directly into something much larger.
The international modeling industry of the 1990s and 2000s routinely recruited teenage and very young women from other countries, transported them across borders, placed them in agency-arranged apartments, sponsored their immigration status and sometimes left them owing money before they had earned their first substantial paycheck. None of that automatically constituted exploitation, but together those practices created a population of young women unusually dependent upon the adults controlling access to their careers.
Jeffrey Epstein did not create that system. Jean-Luc Brunel did not create it. Paolo Zampolli did not create it.
Predators could exploit it.
The newly released Epstein records are beginning to show what happened when they did, and Amanda Ungaro’s journey through that world deserves its own examination. So does Jean-Luc Brunel’s. Most importantly, so does the industry itself.
Because the larger question emerging from these records may ultimately be more important than whether Paolo Zampolli knew Jeffrey Epstein.
What happens when an industry already designed to move young, ambitious and financially dependent women around the world intersects with men who possess enormous money, influence and appetite for access to them?
That is where this investigation goes next.
