Haley Robson said she was wearing only a thong when she first gave Jeffrey Epstein a massage.

Ms. Robson, then 16, had been approached by an acquaintance who asked if she was interested in getting paid to massage Mr. Epstein, a billionaire, in his Florida mansion, according to her statements in a 2009 deposition .

She later visited his home, in Palm Beach, about a dozen times — but as a recruiter of other teenagers , according to the deposition.

Now, after Mr. Epstein’s suicide in a Manhattan jail cell this month, the federal authorities are looking into more than a half-dozen employees, girlfriends and associates of Mr. Epstein, who prosecutors say helped lure girls a nd organize his encounters with them , a person briefed on the inquiry told The Times.

Ms. Robson, 33, is one of them.

The inquiry is garnering urgency as others who say they were abused by Mr. Epstein have asked prosecutors to investigate the women who were close to him. These women recruited and threatened them, the accusers allege.