French prosecutors to set up special team to review Epstein files

The Paris prosecutor’s office on Saturday announced it was setting up a special team of magistrates to analyse evidence that could implicate French nationals in the crimes of the convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.With Epstein’s known circle extending to prominent French figures after the release of documents by the US authorities, the prosecutor’s office said it would also thoroughly re-examine the case of former French modelling agency executive Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of the US financier, who died in custody in 2022.The new team will work closely with prosecutors from the national financial crimes unit and police with a view to opening investigations into any suspected crimes involving French nationals, the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP.The aim is “to be able to extract any piece that could be usefully reused in a new investigative framework”, it said.Brunel was found dead in his cell in a Paris prison in 2022 after having been charged with raping minors. The case against him was dropped in 2023 in the wake of his death, with no other person charged.Prosecutors said an investigation had shown Brunel was “a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein” who had offered modelling jobs to young girls from poor backgrounds.He had engaged in sexual acts with underage girls in the United States, the US Virgin Islands, Paris and the south of France, they said.Ten women had made accusations against Brunel, several describing how they had been led to drink alcohol and had been subjected to forced sexual penetration, according to the prosecutor’s office.Several French public figures feature in the latest US Department of Justice release of material from the Epstein files, though being mentioned there does not in itself mean any offence has been committed.The prosecutor’s office said it had been asked to look into three new specific cases involving a French diplomat, a modelling agent and a musician.At the request of the French foreign ministry it was looking into the reported appearance of senior diplomat Fabrice Aidan in the cache of Epstein-related documents published by the US authorities.“An investigation is under way to gather various pieces of evidence that could substantiate this report,” the prosecutor’s office stated.The prosecutor’s office has also received a complaint filed by a Swedish woman against Daniel Siad, a model recruiter with close ties to Epstein. She accused him of “sexual acts that she describes as rape and that may have been committed in France in 1990”.The office has also received a complaint filed against French conductor Frédéric Chaslin, alleging acts of sexual harassment allegedly committed in 2016, it said.The latest release of Epstein files has led to French former minister Jack Lang resigning from his position as head of a top cultural body, the Arab World Institute.Lang has, however, denied any wrongdoing, saying he was “shocked” that his name appeared in the statutes of an offshore company Epstein founded in 2016.The office of the national financial prosecutor said it had opened a preliminary investigation for “aggravated tax fraud and money laundering” against Lang and his daughter Caroline Lang.Following this announcement, Lang resigned from the presidency of the Arab World Institute.Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking children, in what the US authorities ruled was a suicide.