The Paris prosecutor’s office said Tuesday authorities searched the Paris apartment of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the offices of the modeling agency belonging to Epstein’s longtime friend Jean-Luc Brunel.
The French raid on Epstein’s luxury Paris apartment comes after the jet-setting financier was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell following what the medical examiner ruled to be a suicide by hanging. Epstein had been facing new charges of child sex trafficking after escaping with a sweetheart deal in 2008.
Following his death, investigators worldwide have increased their scrutiny of those who may have enabled Epstein, including British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s on-again off-again girlfriend who is alleged to have helped recruit and entice underage girls; Prince Andrew, who invited him to royal residences in the United Kingdom and visited his private island and home in New York; and Jean-Luc Brunel, founder of Karin Models, who has been tied to Epstein’s illicit activities in court documents.
The whereabouts of Maxwell and Brunel are currently unknown.
Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre alleged that Brunel used his model agency connections to procure women for Epstein.
“A lot of the girls came from poor countries or poor backgrounds, and he lured them in with a promise of making good money,” Giuffre said in 2015. “Jeffrey Epstein has told me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s girls, and everything that I have seen confirms this claim.”
Giuffre said she assumed Brunel procured the girls from Eastern Europe. “They were young and European looking and sounding,” she said.
Brunel flew on Epstein’s infamous Lolita Express nearly two dozen times, and flight logs show that a June 2002 trip 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 executive also visited Epstein in Palm Beach County jail nearly 70 times a decade ago, according to visitor logs.
Brunel was previously the subject of a 60 Minutes documentary which alleged he’d drugged and raped models, which he has denied.
The recent raids in France are part of broader investigation into Epstein launched last month.
Remy Heitz, the Paris chief prosecutor, said his decision to look into allegations of rape swirling around the deceased businessman stemmed from information provided to his office and followed discussions with investigators from the United States. The French inquiry was originally said to center around victims who are minors aged 15 and older.
The prosecutor’s office said three new alleged victims were interviewed by investigators in August and September.
Paris police tweeted earlier in September that “the Paris Prosecutor’s Office is looking for witnesses in the Epstein case” and that “specialized police officers are mobilized.” French law enforcement provided contact information for victims or witnesses to come forward.
Epstein’s will, signed two days before his death, said he was worth $577.7 million and listed homes and properties in New York City, Palm Beach, Florida, New Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Paris.
The French-based dummy company “SCI JEP” held the title to Epstein’s Paris apartment building units, worth more than $8.6 million.
Epstein had been held in jail since he was arrested by federal authorities at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on his way home from Paris in early July. Epstein was alleged to have sexually exploited and abused dozens of girls at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, among other locations, between 2002 and 2005 and perhaps beyond. Prosecutors claimed Epstein “enticed and recruited” girls to “engage in sex acts with him” and built a “vast network of underage victims.”
Attorney General William Barr and other investigators in the U.S. have vowed investigations related to Epstein and any possible co-conspirators will continue.
