France has launched two probes into the Jeffrey Epstein affair, looking at potential crimes committed in the country or involving French nationals tied to the late American sex offender. The author of a new book tells RFI how Paris, as a fashion capital, provided a "reservoir" of the very young women preyed on by Epstein's grooming network.
France set up a special task force in February to probe alleged sexual crimes and possible financial wrongdoing committed in the country or involving French nationals who could be implicated in Epstein's crimes. It came after the United States Justice Department released the latest batch of the so-called "Epstein files" relating to its investigation into the disgraced financier, who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 awaiting trial for trafficking underage girls for sex. The top Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said earlier this week that around 20 suspected victims had made themselves known after she urged potential victims to speak. Ten "new victims" had come forward, she said. RFI spoke to investigative journalist and author Frédéric Ploquin, whose recently published book on the case Epstein: Les secrets de la filière française ("Epstein: Secrets of the French Network") argues the scandal is very much a French affair. RFI: Frédéric Ploquin, you're best known for writing about organised crime. What drew you to the Epstein case? FP: Because, when you get down to it, these powerful men are criminals like any other – and I decided to treat them as such. I normally write about gangsters, armed robbers, that sort of thing. But when I grasped the scale of this affair, I felt investigative journalism had a duty to these victims. It's a criminal case, plain and simple. And I treat it as one. The book reads like a thriller – which isn't surprising, given that beyond the very large number of women who were raped, there are also deaths. It's a murky world, and the Jeffrey Epstein I uncovered is not just a sexual predator but a major international fraudster and a kind of shadow diplomat, compromising people left, right and centre. That connects with my usual territory – espionage, organised crime. But the real reason I wrote this book is that the two main suspects – Jeffrey Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel – both officially died by suicide, and as a result the victims, including those who had come forward to testify before French courts, were robbed of any trial. I thought: there's been no justice, these women have been left to fend for themselves, 20 years after the events, having made the effort to come forward. So I decided to make some noise. [Editor's note: Jean-Luc Brunel was a French model scout and agent, and Epstein's key accomplice in the Paris-based sex-trafficking ring. He died by suicide in his prison cell in February 2022, just before his trial for the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation, related to his work with Epstein. His lawyers stated he died by suicide not out of guilt but from a feeling of injustice.]
