The Paris prosecutor’s workplace stated Tuesday authorities searched the Paris apartment of kid intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and the places of work of the modeling agency belonging to Epstein’s longtime buddy Jean-Luc Brunel.
The French raid on Epstein’s luxurious Paris apartment comes after the jet-setting financier was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell following what the health worker dominated to be a suicide by hanging. Epstein had been dealing with new costs of kid intercourse trafficking after escaping with a sweetheart deal in 2008.
Following his dying, investigators worldwide have elevated their scrutiny of those that might have enabled Epstein, together with British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s on-again off-again girlfriend who’s alleged to have helped recruit and entice underage women; Prince Andrew, who invited him to royal residences within the United Kingdom and visited his non-public island and dwelling in New York; and Jean-Luc Brunel, founding father of Karin Models, who has been tied to Epstein’s illicit actions in court documents.
The whereabouts of Maxwell and Brunel are at the moment unknown.
Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre alleged that Brunel used his model agency connections to obtain girls for Epstein.
“Loads of the women got here from poor nations or poor backgrounds, and he lured them in with a promise of creating good cash,” Giuffre stated in 2015. “Jeffrey Epstein has advised me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s women, and every part that I’ve seen confirms this declare.”
Giuffre stated she assumed Brunel procured the women from Eastern Europe. “They were young and European looking and sounding,” she stated.
Brunel flew on Epstein’s notorious Lolita Express almost two dozen instances, and flight logs present {that a} June 2002 journey from Palm Beach to the Bahamas to New Jersey to New York City and then to Paris and Hyeres in France included Epstein, Maxwell, Giuffre, and Brunel.
The French modeling government additionally visited Epstein in Palm Beach County jail almost 70 instances a decade in the past, according to visitor logs.
Brunel was beforehand the topic of a 60 Minutes documentary which alleged he’d drugged and raped fashions, which he has denied.
The current raids in France are a part of broader investigation into Epstein launched final month.