Six women have accused Gérald Marie, the former head of a Paris-based model agency, of rape and sexual abuse, including allegations involving underage victims. The accusations emerged as part of legal complaints filed in Paris on Tuesday.

Most of the women are American models who worked during the 1980s and 1990s under Marie’s leadership at Elite Model Management. Among the allegations is a claim by one woman who said she was drugged by Marie in a Paris nightclub, waking up next to him without recollection of how she arrived there.

Marie, 76, who was previously married to Canadian supermodel Linda Evangelista, denies all accusations. Evangelista has also accused him of abuse during their marriage. Marie has not addressed questions regarding his alleged association with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, although he was reportedly a business partner of Jean Luc Brunel, another model scout linked to Epstein.

One of the complainants, Wendy Walsh, 64, is a California-based psychology professor and a dual Canadian-US citizen. She publicly waived her right to anonymity and described being raped by Marie at his home when she was 18. Walsh painted a grim picture of the 1980s Paris fashion industry, saying that models were often treated as commodities and subjected to exploitation at parties where illegal drugs were commonplace and power dynamics heavily favored older men.

“I tried to stop him ... but I was only 18 and he was 30,” Walsh said. She also noted that her roommate suffered similar abuse and emphasized how isolated young models were at the time, far from their families and with limited financial resources controlled by the agency. “We had no mobile phones back then and the model agency made sure we had little money,” she added.

Walsh acknowledged that many of the complaints could be hindered by the statute of limitations for criminal cases in France but expressed a desire simply to tell her story and be heard.

The new allegations have reignited scrutiny over the fashion industry's past, particularly concerning the treatment of young women and the ties some executives had to figures like Epstein and Brunel. Authorities in Paris are currently examining the complaints as part of an ongoing investigation.