French prosecutors announce special team to analyze Epstein files

The Paris prosecutor’s office announces it is setting up a special team of magistrates to analyze evidence that could implicate French nationals in the crimes of the convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

With Epstein’s known circle now 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 a former French modeling agency executive, Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of the American 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 tells AFP.

The aim is “to be able to extract any piece that could be usefully reused in a new investigative framework,” it says.

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 modeling jobs to young girls from poor backgrounds.

Brunel 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.