French investigators raided the offices of former Culture Minister Jack Lang, 86, on Monday, as prosecutors step up efforts to examine potential links between French nationals and the crimes of US financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The national financial prosecutor’s office said it had opened a preliminary investigation into alleged aggravated tax fraud and money laundering involving Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline Lang.
Lang resigned earlier this month as president of the Arab World Institute, a position he had held for over a decade, after it was revealed that he had corresponded numerous times with the sexual predator.
Lang had previously requested favours from Jeffrey Epstein, including use of the financier’s car or private plane for himself or family members.The former minister's name also appeared in the statutes of an offshore company founded by Epstein in 2016.
Lang has denied any wrongdoing, saying he was “shocked” to learn of the news. The former minister has insisted that he had known nothing of Epstein’s 2008 conviction of "procuring a girl below the age of 18 for prostitution".
In a recent interview with a French newspaper, he described himself as “white as snow” and denounced what he called a “tsunami of lies.”
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Special team of judges
Monday's office raid comes as Paris prosecutors confirmed over the weekend that they are establishing a special team of judges to study material released by US authorities concerning Jeffrey Epstein’s network.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the new team will work closely with the police and with prosecutors from the national financial crimes unit to determine whether any French citizens had committed crimes.
The aim, according to prosecutors, is to extract any piece of evidence from the Epstein files that could be reused in new investigations.
Members of France's political and cultural elite named in Epstein files
French prosecutors have also announced that they will revisit the case of Jean-Luc Brunel, a former modelling agency executive and close Epstein associate who died in custody in Paris in 2022 after being charged with raping minors. The case against him was dropped in 2023 in the wake of his death.
Prosecutors said Brunel had offered modelling jobs to young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds and had engaged in sexual acts with underage girls in multiple locations including the United States, the US Virgin Islands and France.
Ten women have brought accusations against him, including being subjected to forced sexual penetration.
Jeffrey Epstein died in a US prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. US authorities ruled his death a suicide.
(with newswires)
