A French former culture minister Monday said he had no idea about the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein after his name appeared in files related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
French investigative website Mediapart also on Monday reported that Epstein in 2016 founded a company based in the US Virgin Islands, half of whose shares were owned by Lang’s eldest daughter Caroline.
But it said no files it reviewed suggested either father or daughter had been implicated in Epstein’s sexual crimes.
Jack Lang said that he first met Epstein through the US film director Woody Allen “about 15 years ago”.
“I was completely shocked when I discovered the crimes he had committed,” Lang, who has been president of the Paris-based Arab World Institute since 2013, said in a statement.
“I fully accept the ties I may have formed at a time when nothing suggested that Jeffrey Epstein could be at the heart of a criminal network,” he added.
“Had I known, I would have immediately cut off all contact with him.”
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while in prison facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
Caroline Lang told Mediapart she met Epstein through Allen and his wife in 2012, and that one day the US financier told her he wanted to “invest in young French and international artists”.
She said his lawyers set up the company called Prytanee LLC, but that she did not invest any money in it. An email in the Epstein files suggests she instead contributed her knowledge of the art world, Mediapart reported.
She told the investigative website she had been “incredibly naive”.
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