We were lured to shoot by ‘Playboy’ photographer and assaulted after he drew in models with sick ‘Pay-to-Play’ scam

A famous bunny emblem in the upper right corner, a lace robe draped across her elbows, and a SEDUCTIVE stance.

Emilie Rae could never have predicted the price of the publication that was meant to permanently alter her life.

When Emilie, 31, was given the opportunity to work with Luis, a photographer with extensive connections in the glamour sector, she felt like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

In 2020, Luis reached out to UK glamour model Emilie on Instagram.

The photographer, who is based in Texas, USA, stated that he intended to shoot Emilie for Playboy and that he was traveling to the UK when the COVID lockdown limitations were relaxed.

In my new podcast, The Bunny Trap, I describe how that message sparked a picture session that ultimately served as the impetus for a four-year investigation into exploitation and abuse in the glamor industry.

Models on the covers of Playboy magazines were featured in many of Luis’s Instagram pictures.

Emilie was shocked by her good fortune. The model was tied into a costly mortgage that she was concerned about paying after losing a lucrative TV modeling job due to the pandemic and her OnlyFans earnings declining from the 8,000 she was initially making each month.

She believed that this was her chance to succeed, and Luis assured her that he could turn her into a household name.

However, Emilie says her photo shoot with Luis turned into a nightmare, as the model claimed the photographer, who has not been prosecuted or found guilty of any crimes, forced her into increasingly sexual poses.

She claims that even though she was told she was filming for Playboy, the production soon turned into a pornographic one in which Luis urged Emilie to use sex toys.

Regarding Emilie’s and other models’ claims, The Sun has reached out to Luis several times but has never heard back.

“I just thought, what’s going on?” Emilie remarked. He would physically approach me, take my hand, and put it in a specific location. He acted quite violently.

According to the model, the shoot got out of hand to the point that Luis started filming without Emilie’s permission and then asked her to have sex with him.

Emilie describes her fortunate escape from the Airbnb where they were filming as a “lucky escape.”

‘Harassment and abuse’

Following that, Emilie shared her story on Instagram without mentioning any specific names. She claimed that other models started approaching her and inquiring as to whether she was referring to Luis.

The models got together and started telling Luis about their experiences with alleged abuse and harassment during photo assignments.

Many said they had been forced into awkward circumstances, and one model, Kiki Jay, said Luis had sexually attacked her during a Playboy photo session.

According to Kiki, Luis tried to kiss her and inappropriately handled her during the photo shoot before trying to coerce Kiki into doing a sex act on him.

Kiki claims that throughout the alleged assault, she was traumatized and started crying.

After her shoot with Luis, Kiki says she wanted to talk to the police, but her friends advised her against it, claiming that her career as a glamor model would be detrimental.

Emilie, who had created a group chat for models who had reported abuse and harassment against Luis and wanted to take action, reached out to Kiki shortly after the alleged assault. Kiki calls this “music to my ears.”

Eventually, the ladies from the group chat contacted me, asking me to look into their allegations of abuse and harassment in the hopes that their voices would be heard at last.

From hearing the accounts of over a dozen British models who said they had bad experiences with Luis on shoots to discovering a complex network of alleged sexual and financial abuse that occurs all over the world, my investigation led me in a way I never would have imagined.

As part of an industry-wide practice known as Pay For Play, Luis is paying models thousands of pounds to appear in international Playboy editions, according to our most recent episode, which is currently accessible.

Blacklisted

When we look more closely, we discover that a large number of these journals are only available online and are no longer in print, which begs the issue of whether anyone is truly purchasing them.

Many of the models claim they paid huge amounts of money – or were pressured into taking more explicit content – under the illusion that appearing in one of these magazines could be career-defining.

But our investigation suggests in many cases they were little more than online PDFs, likely seen by very few people.

We also learn how Luis is charging models thousands to appear in other magazines, which we reveal he self-publishes and amount to little more than a PDF booklet available for online download, for a fee that appears to go directly to him.

We contacted Luis multiple times for comments but have never heard back.

We also reveal how Playboy told its international licensees to blacklist Luis in April 2019 after allegations of pay-to-play were brought to their attention – a full year before his tour of the UK, where he arranged so-called Playboy shoots with Emilie and many of the other models we spoke to.

Playboy said: When Playboy has become aware that certain photographers have engaged in pay-to-play practices, such as when it learned of [Luis] in April of 2019, it has acted without hesitation in support of women and directed the licensee(s) to blacklist those specific photographers.

They added: Playboy expressly prohibits its international publishing licensees from accepting content from photographers or models on a pay-to-play basis.

This revelation that Luis was still touting his alleged Playboy connections to meet and shoot with models a year after being blacklisted is a grim reminder of how little protection there is for the women working in an industry rife with exploitation and abuse.

Devastatingly, this lack of regulation becomes even more evident as our investigation continues, as we reveal levels of exploitation we could never have predicted.

The first four episodes of the Bunny Trap, produced by Novel, are available on all Podcast platforms now. The remaining episodes will be released weekly on Tuesdays.

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