More than two weeks after the declassification of millions of documents linked to the Epstein affair, French justice is taking over five files involving French nationals, including Jack Lang, Fabrice Aidan and Jean-Luc Brunel. France 24 takes stock.

Published on: 02/17/2026 - 07:22 Modified on: 02/17/2026 - 1:06 p.m.

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The Epstein earthquake, sprawling and global, continues to produce its local aftershocks. More than three million documents, made public by the American Minister of Justice at the end of January, are now plunging the French authorities into a colossal task: identifying possible offenses committed by French nationals or on national soil, whether of a sexual or financial nature.

Last weekend, the Paris prosecutor's office announced the appointment of lead magistrates to sift through these archives. Five French files are now open, involving personalities from the political, diplomatic, cultural and modeling spheres. Overview.

Jack Lang: financial links in the viewfinder

Emblematic Minister of Culture under François Mitterrand, Jack Lang, 86, is the first Frenchman caught up in the revelations of the “Epstein Files”. His name, like that of his eldest daughter Caroline, appears in documents linked to an “offshore” real estate transaction in Morocco. A company domiciled in the US Virgin Islands, founded by his daughter and Jeffrey Epstein in 2016, is also mentioned.

The exhumed exchanges show intermittent correspondence between the two men between 2012 and 2019, when Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell before his trial for sex trafficking of minors in New York. “Dear Jeffrey, (...) your generosity is infinite. Can I go further?”, wrote Jack Lang in 2017, before asking to be taken by car to a party organized by the Aga Khan outside Paris.

This proximity between the former French minister and the American billionaire is exposed in other documents. Jack Lang “personally insisted that you come to his birthday,” wrote businessman Étienne Binant, patron of the Arab World Institute (IMA), to Jeffrey Epstein in 2017. “It’s for the inner circle only, he doesn’t make these kinds of invitations lightly.”

These revelations triggered a political and media storm, leading Jack Lang to resign from his position as president of the IMA. For her part, her daughter is leaving her position as general delegate of the Independent Production Union. She then describes Jeffrey Epstein as an “acquaintance” and a “generous patron” whose “idea of ​​establishing a perfectly legal fund intended to promote the acquisition of works” seemed “relevant” to her.

Also read: Epstein affair: confusion and misinformation surrounding the presence of Audrey Azoulay in the documents

Jack Lang admitted in early February to having met Jeffrey Epstein "around fifteen years ago" through the American director Woody Allen, saying he was "seduced by his erudition, his culture, his intellectual curiosity" and now denouncing his "odious practices".

After several days of controversy, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) opened a preliminary investigation on February 6 for "laundering of aggravated tax fraud" targeting Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline. Searches take place on Monday, notably at the IMA, at the same time as Jack Lang bids farewell to the staff during a small ceremony.

No evidence, at this stage, links Jack Lang to Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes. The investigation targets exclusively the supposed financial links with the billionaire, specifies the PNF, in particular to establish whether income or other advantages have been hidden from the tax authorities. Jack Lang denounces “a tsunami of gossip”.

Fabrice Aidan: a diplomat who transmits internal documents

A career French diplomat, currently on leave for "personal reasons" and "holding positions within the Engie energy group", Fabrice Aidan appears more than 200 times in the declassified documents.

His email exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein began in 2010. At the time, he was seconded to the United Nations as advisor to the Norwegian diplomat Terje Rod-Larsen – the latter, as well as his wife Mona Juul, are today the subject of an investigation in Norway for "aggravated corruption" and "complicity" due to their links with Jeffrey Epstein.

According to revelations from Mediapart and Radio France, Fabrice Aidan would have transmitted internal UN documents to Jeffrey Epstein, taking advantage of his diplomatic networks. The emails also demonstrate a certain closeness: Jeffrey Epstein notably asks for Terje Rod-Larsen's shoe size to offer him shoes. In 2014, they discussed the possible purchase by the billionaire, for $27,000, of a work on the Israeli-Arab conflict co-written by Fabrice Aidan and Terje Rod-Larsen. A year later, an email mentions a transfer of $250,000 to the Norwegian diplomat account, whose bank details were provided by Fabrice Aidan.

Alerted by these revelations, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot took legal action last Tuesday and launched an administrative investigation. The Paris public prosecutor's office immediately opened an investigation with a view to "collecting various elements likely to support" this report. The person concerned contests all the accusations.

Also read: A French diplomat cited in the Epstein case, a report sent to the courts

Mediapart also reveals that the UN was alerted in 2013 by the FBI to the existence of an investigation likely to implicate Fabrice Aidan in New York for alleged consultations of child pornography sites. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained the absence of sanctions by the fact that no charges had been brought across the Atlantic at the time. The diplomat, through his counsel, “contests the entirety of the accusations made against him”. At this point, no direct link to Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes has been established.

Jean-Luc Brunel: the dead recruiter with his secrets

Former modeling agent and close to Jeffrey Epstein, Jean-Luc Brunel is considered one of his main touts. Founder in 1978 of the prestigious Karin Models agency, then of MC2 in the United States, he saw his name appear in the first American investigation in 2007 on the American financier. From this time, several women accused him of having attracted “young girls”, sometimes minors, with the promise of careers in modeling. Jean-Luc Brunel disappears from the radar for years – with the exception of an appearance at a posh evening in Levallois-Perret in July 2019.

The following month, faced with the possible presence of French minors among Jeffrey Epstein's victims, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation. The investigations quickly crystallized around Jean-Luc Brunel. In the process, several former models came out of silence to directly accuse him of rape. If many facts then seem to be covered by the statute of limitations, a complaint for “sexual harassment” filed in October 2019 makes it possible to initiate proceedings against him.

Indicted in 2020 and incarcerated for "rape of a minor over 15 years old" and "sexual harassment" against two complainants, then again in 2021 for similar facts concerning a third woman, Jean-Luc Brunel was found hanged in his cell at La Santé prison in February 2022. His suicide prematurely ended the investigations.

Also read: Epstein affair: Trump, Gates, Musk... the personalities cited in the latest documents

On Saturday, the Paris prosecutor's office announced that it was launching a "complete reanalysis of the investigation file", in order to bring together "any evidence likely to be usefully reused in a new investigation framework". In total, ten women accuse Jean-Luc Brunel, describing the same pattern: forced consumption of alcohol, loss of control, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness, then rape, while some of them were not yet adults, according to the public prosecutor.

“One described Jean-Luc Brunel as being the one who sent new young girls to Jeffrey Epstein, under the pretext of photo shoots, from Eastern Europe or Latin America. Others indicated that they had been forced into these sexual relations, by their young age, the control that Jeffrey Epstein or Jean-Luc Brunel had over them,” explains the prosecution.

Daniel Siad: another tout at the heart of suspicion

From February 9, a new name emerges from the millions of declassified documents: that of model recruiter Daniel Siad, presented as another potential tout of the billionaire. Targeted by a complaint for rape in France, he appears in more than a thousand documents in the Epstein file. The exchanges combine the identification of women, discussions about their age and financial requests. In a 2014 email, Daniel Siad compares his activity to a fishing trip: “Sometimes I catch quickly, sometimes there are no fish,” he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein about the young women he said he identified.

The first emails date back to 2009, a year after Jeffrey Epstein's first conviction, and continue until 2019. Daniel Siad regularly mentions women and teenage girls spotted in Eastern Europe or Scandinavia, whose photographs he transmits. Their age frequently comes up in discussions. In June 2009, he mentioned a 20-year-old woman "who looks younger", from Latvia. In July 2014, he mentioned "at least five" potential recruits aged 16 and 17, as well as a 15-year-old French teenager.

Accustomed to international travel, Daniel Siad also appears to serve as an intermediary between Jeffrey Epstein and a Thai foundation headed by Mom Luang Rajadarasri Jayankura, who presents herself as a descendant of the royal family. In particular, he seeks the financier's help to obtain non-profit status in the United States.

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The documents consulted by AFP also show regular payments of money from Jeffrey Epstein to Daniel Siad, sometimes of several thousand euros. In 2018, the billionaire sent his bank details to his accountant, citing a “loan of $25,000 over five years”. The archives also highlight links between Daniel Siad and Jean-Luc Brunel. In a 2016 message, Stan Pottinger, lawyer for victims of Jeffrey Epstein, reported to a New York prosecutor that Jean-Luc Brunel described Daniel Siad as a “scout” or “recruiter of girls” for Jeffrey Epstein.

Last Tuesday, a Swedish woman, Ebba Karlsson, filed a complaint against Daniel SIad, accusing him of rape "committed in France in 1990" - a complaint currently being analyzed. Questioned by France 2, Daniel Siad assures that he was "not in a position to know that Jeffrey Epstein was "dangerous" and affirms that the American criminal would have "used [his] trust".

Frédéric Chaslin: documented exchanges and an old complaint unearthed

Internationally renowned conductor, former musical director of the Santa Fe Opera in the early 2010s, Frédéric Chaslin is another Frenchman whose file is being analyzed for his links with Jeffrey Epstein. On February 2, 2026, Diapason magazine revealed that it had spotted the existence of exchanges between the two men in the millions of declassified documents.

The declassified documents show several meetings and invitations to concerts. In an email dated September 2013, Frédéric Chaslin mentions having “found a wonderful girl” in Paris. "Philosophy student. 21 years old. She looks a bit like [Roman] Polanski's current wife," he says.

The day after the revelations, the conductor defended himself publicly, denouncing simple “insinuations”. He specified a few days later in a press release on Facebook that he had only met the billionaire “four times, not one more”. He nevertheless recognizes that he “should have exercised more caution”.

Last Thursday, the Paris prosecutor's office indicated that it had recovered a complaint for alleged sexual harassment dating from 2016, initially filed in Thonon-les-Bains. The procedure is “being received and analyzed”, he specifies.

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