Author: Gianluca Lo Nostro
PARIS, Feb 16 (Reuters) – French police raided the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as part of an investigation into its former director, ex-culture minister Jack Long, and his links to convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said.
France’s National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) said in a statement that the Arab World Institute was one of several locations raided.
Prosecutors this month launched a preliminary investigation into alleged tax fraud against Long and his daughter Caroline after the release of U.S. documents on Epstein
Lang, who served as culture minister under the late Socialist President François Mitterrand, resigned this month from the Institute for the Arab World, which he had led since 2013.
He said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes despite having corresponded with him between 2012 and 2019, 11 years after the financier was convicted of soliciting underage girls for prostitution. Epstein committed suicide in prison in 2019.
The institute, overseen by France’s foreign ministry, said it could not immediately comment on the police action.
Both Jack and Caroline Long have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and denied receiving financial benefits from Epstein. Their lawyer Laurent Merlet told French broadcaster BFMTV this month that “no money is flowing”.
The fallout from the release of millions of new documents related to Epstein has rippled across Europe. On Saturday, Paris prosecutors set up a special team to review the documents, coordinating with financial prosecutors and national police.
The office said it was analyzing several potential cases in the Epstein files.
One involves French diplomat Fabrice Aidan, who is alleged to have passed UN documents to Epstein.
Aidan, who worked at the United Nations from July 2006 to April 2013, rejected the charges through his lawyer.
(Reporting by Sudeep Ka-Gupta and Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Richard Love and Kevin Liffey)