Lawsuit Says Hugh Hefner Repeatedly Contacted FBI About Epstein in 2005

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner repeatedly contacted the FBI in 2005 after a former Playboy Playmate told him that Jeffrey Epstein had allegedly raped and trafficked her, according to an amended federal complaint filed against the U.S. government by 32 women who allege they were victims of Epstein.

The allegation became public this month through reporting on the amended complaint, renewing scrutiny of how U.S. authorities handled warnings about Epstein before his 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges. If substantiated, it would place a report about Epstein before the FBI years before that arrest.

The woman identified in the lawsuit is Audra Lynn Christiansen, who was Playboy's Miss October 2003. According to the complaint, Christiansen was 23 and living at Hefner's Beverly Hills mansion in 2005 when she approached him for help. She told him, the complaint states, that Epstein had raped and trafficked her, and that she had allegedly been trafficked to Stanley Ho, a Macau casino billionaire who died in 2020.

Christiansen asked Hefner, who died in 2017 at age 91, to contact the FBI on her behalf. She believed his influence and law enforcement connections would lead authorities to take her allegations seriously, according to the complaint. The complaint states that Hefner called the FBI multiple times to report Epstein at her request.

The bureau did not contact Christiansen until October 2020, roughly 15 years later and after Epstein had died in federal custody, the complaint says. A 2020 FBI report of the conversation, included in the court filing, says Christiansen told investigators that her modeling agents had introduced her to Epstein, who wanted to meet her after seeing her Playboy photo shoot. Christiansen, now 46, later appeared on the reality television series "The Girls Next Door."

None of this has been established as fact by a court. The allegation that Hefner contacted the FBI comes from the complaint and from Christiansen's own account as described in it, and her allegations against Epstein and Ho remain allegations rather than proven criminal conduct.

The Hefner allegation is one part of a broader lawsuit brought against the U.S. government by 32 women who allege they were victimized by Epstein. According to reporting on the amended complaint filed in May in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the plaintiffs accuse the FBI of failing to adequately investigate warnings about Epstein dating back to 1996. The plaintiffs argue that federal authorities' alleged failures allowed his abuse and trafficking to continue for years.

Their attorney, Jordan Merson, has criticized the government's handling of the case and argued that procedural defenses should not shield federal authorities from accountability for the alleged investigative failures. The government has sought dismissal, arguing that the FBI is not legally required to investigate every complaint it receives. A federal judge dismissed the Third Amended Complaint without prejudice in April 2026 but allowed the plaintiffs an opportunity to seek leave to amend. The litigation has continued through subsequent filings.

Federal and local authorities in Florida began investigating Epstein in 2006 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported that she had allegedly been abused at his Palm Beach mansion. He pleaded guilty to state charges in 2008 under a controversial non-prosecution agreement and received a sentence that drew widespread criticism. Renewed scrutiny of his conduct years later led to his arrest in July 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving minors. He died in federal custody in Manhattan in August 2019 while awaiting trial; authorities ruled his death a suicide.

Ho was one of the most prominent figures in Macau's casino industry. He also appears in previously released Epstein-related material, including a 2011 email in which Epstein described Ho as a powerful figure in Macau, according to reporting on the records.

Sources:

• New York Post
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida — Doe 1 et al. v. United States of America