Sarah Ransome

Sarah Ransome (born 1984) is a South African-born advocate and author. In 2006, she moved to New York as a 22-year-old and met Jeffrey Epstein, who provided her with financial support. Ransome alleges she was trafficked and abused by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for a period of 9 months.

In 2016, Ransome told a reporter that she possessed copies of sex tapes of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Richard Branson, which she claimed were filmed on hidden cameras by Jeffrey Epstein for blackmail purposes. In 2019, Ransome admitted to fabricating the claim in The New Yorker. In later accounts, she has alleged that Epstein threatened to kill her and her family, prompting her to escape and fly to the United Kingdom.

In 2021, Ransome published her book Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back.

In July 2006, media outlets were reporting on Epstein's illegal sexual activity with minors. In December 2006, Ransome met Epstein through a friend in New York. According to Ransome, she began giving him massages in return for payment, and as the massages became more sexual, Epstein gave her a "huge apartment in Epstein's building on the Upper East Side, along with a cell phone, a car-service account, and money for living expenses".

In her 2017 deposition, Ransome said she was eventually "banished" by Epstein, who purchased her a one way ticket to South Africa, and that she "cut all ties" upon return home. In 2024, her emails were publicized, and Ransome said she only withdrew her claim due to "threats to her family". According to the BBC, Ransome has never produced evidence of the tapes. She starred in the 2020 Netflix series, Filthy Rich.

According to Julie K. Brown, Ransome was the only witness as of 2021 to corroborate Virginia Giuffre's allegation that Epstein had trafficked girls to other men. She states: "only one other victim, Sarah Ransome, has told a similar story about being trafficked. No other victims or witnesses have come forward publicly to corroborate Virginia's sex trafficking allegations despite the fact that some of the encounters involved multiple girls and women".

In 2017, she alleged that Epstein's former lawyer Alan Dershowitz had sexually assaulted her, following Virginia Giuffre's allegation of being trafficked to Dershowitz. He denied having met Ransome, and told The New Yorker that "the villain" was Ransome's lawyer, David Boies, who he said was "exploiting a crazy woman in order to get revenge against me".

According to a 2026 Business Insider'' article, Ransome's sex tape claim is tied to claims that Epstein was working for intelligence by collecting compromising videos of high-profile figures for the purposes of blackmail. Personal life As of 2021, Ransome resides in England.