Brunel had met Ghislaine Maxwell in the 1980s, and she later introduced him to the financier Jeffrey Epstein.[13] Brunel received funds from Epstein of "up to a million dollars" in 2004 to help launch a new modeling agency: MC2 Model Management.[1] Brunel transformed Karin Models U.S. division into MC2 Model Management, by opening offices in New York City and Miami in 2005. The agency name evokes Epstein through a reference to Einstein's equation for mass energy equivalency or E=mc2.[3][13] Clients of MC2 reportedly included Nordstrom, Macy's Inc., Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, JCPenney Co., Kohl's Corporation, Target Corporation, Sears, and Belk.[16] Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an Epstein accuser, alleged in a 2014 court filing that the system was a cover for sex trafficking.[4] In court documents released in August 2019, Giuffre named Brunel as one of the men Maxwell had directed her as a teenager to have sex with.[17] In 2019, it was reported that Brunel helped create The Identity Models in New York City and 1Mother Agency in Kyiv, Ukraine.[18] MC2 was dissolved on 27 September 2019.