Founder Reported Epstein to FBI, Lawsuit Claims

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A new court filing says Hugh Hefner personally called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2005 to report that Jeffrey Epstein had raped a Playboy Playmate, and the bureau allegedly did nothing for fifteen years.

Quick Take

A lawsuit says Hefner reported Epstein abuse claims to the FBI multiple times in 2005.
Former Playboy Playmate Audra Christiansen says she asked Hefner to make the call because his fame would carry weight.
The complaint says the FBI did not follow up with Christiansen until October 2020.
The lawsuit covers dozens of Epstein survivors suing the federal government over years of alleged inaction.

Playmate Says She Asked Hefner To Call The FBI

Audra Christiansen, a former Playboy Playmate, told Hefner in 2005 that Epstein had sexually abused and trafficked her, according to an amended lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Florida. She asked Hefner to contact the FBI himself, believing his fame would push agents to take the claim seriously.

Court filings say Hefner followed through. Multiple news outlets reviewed the documents and reported that Hefner called the FBI more than once in 2005 to pass along Christiansen’s allegations against Epstein. The lawsuit describes this as a direct, repeated effort by Hefner to get federal law enforcement to act on what he had been told.

Fifteen Years Of Alleged Silence

The complaint states the FBI did not meaningfully investigate Christiansen’s claims for about fifteen years after Hefner’s calls. Coverage of the filing says she did not hear back from the bureau until October 2020, long after Epstein had already faced separate criminal charges and died in federal custody in 2019.

This is not the first documented case of a slow-moving federal response to Epstein warnings. A 2013 court ruling in Doe v. United States confirms the FBI opened a formal investigation into Epstein in 2006, showing federal agents already had information about his conduct around the same time Hefner says he called. That timeline raises questions about how the Christiansen tip was handled internally.

Broader Lawsuit Targets Federal Inaction

Christiansen’s account is part of a larger lawsuit involving 32 to 34 Epstein survivors who are suing the United States government over what they call years of failed oversight. The suit argues federal agencies had chances to stop Epstein earlier but repeatedly failed to act on information they received, including from high-profile figures like Hefner.

The FBI has moved to dismiss the case, arguing it was not required to investigate every complaint it receives, according to reporting on the filings. The bureau has not issued a public statement addressing the Hefner allegation specifically, and the court record does not yet include the original tip, call log, or agent notes from 2005.

Part Of A Familiar Epstein Pattern

This case fits a pattern seen throughout the Epstein saga. A Department of Justice review already found that federal prosecutors mishandled the 2006-2008 Epstein investigation and failed victims during that process. Earlier reporting also shows a 1996 complaint against Epstein reached the FBI’s Miami office nearly a decade before the bureau opened its formal case.

Government files released in January 2026 added millions of pages of Epstein-related documents, though gaps remain in what the public can see about internal FBI decisions from this period. For families and survivors, the Hefner allegation adds one more example of a tip that reportedly went nowhere for years, even when it came from someone with major public influence.

Hefner died in 2017, so he cannot confirm or add detail to the lawsuit’s account of his calls. Christiansen’s version, laid out in the court filing, remains the central source describing what Hefner did and when he did it, pending further discovery in the case.

Hugh Hefner reportedly notified the FBI that a Playboy Playmate was sexually abused and trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and others in his orbit. Court records state Hefner was told by then-Playboy Playmate Audra Christiansen in 2005 that she was an Epstein survivor and requested… pic.twitter.com/lghKjn6fkB

— NewsNation (@NewsNation) August 14, 2026

The lawsuit is ongoing in federal court, and future filings could bring more detail about how the FBI handled the tip once Hefner made it. For now, the claim stands as another data point in the long record of warnings about Epstein that reached federal law enforcement well before his 2019 arrest.