France opens two Epstein-linked probes
Paris prosecutors opened on Wednesday two new investigations into potential sex abuse crimes and financial wrongdoings linked to Jeffrey Epstein following the release of millions of files of the millionaire financier and convicted sex offender, and called on possible victims to come forward.
Paris prosecutor Laurence Beccuau said the investigations are seeking to use the files released by the US administration, media reports and new complaints that are being filed. “All that data … some will shed light on others to be able to get a well-informed, very broad, panoramic view,” Beccuau said on France Info news broadcaster. One investigation will focus on sex abuse crimes, the other on financial wrongdoing, each involving specialised magistrates, she added.
The move comes after the release by the US Justice Department of more than 3 million pages of documents, as well as thousands of videos and photos related to Epstein, who died behind bars in 2019. “These publications will inevitably reactivate the trauma of certain victims,” she said. “We are convinced that some (victims) are not necessarily known to us, and that perhaps these publications will lead them to come forward.
” She called on victims who may have never spoken up before to file formal complaints or make witness accounts to feed French and foreign investigations. Beccuau also said some material from old investigations is to be revisited in the light of new revelations. She was referring to the investigation into a French modelling agent, Jean-Luc Brunel, accused of rape and sex trafficking of minors. The probe was closed in 2022 after he was found dead in his jail cell in Paris.
Brunel, a frequent companion of Epstein, was considered central to the French investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls by Epstein and his circle. Epstein travelled often to France and had apartments in Paris. The highest-profile figure impacted by the recent release of the Epstein files in France is former Culture Minister Jack Lang, who stepped down earlier this month as head of the Arab World Institute in Paris over suspicions of tax fraud.
