By Gianluca Lo Nostro
PARIS, Feb 16 (Reuters) – French police searched the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as part of a probe into its former head, ex-culture minister Jack Lang, and his links to late 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 among several locations being raided.
Prosecutors this month opened a preliminary investigation of Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of tax fraud following the release of documents on Epstein in the U.S.
Lang, who was culture minister under late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, resigned this month from the Arab World Institute, which he had led since 2013.
He has said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes despite corresponding with him between 2012 and 2019, 11 years after the financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Epstein died in prison by suicide in 2019.
The Institute, which is overseen by France’s foreign ministry, said it could not immediately comment on the police action.
Both Jack and Caroline Lang have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and receiving financial benefits from Epstein. Their lawyer Laurent Merlet told French broadcaster BFMTV this month that “there was no movement of funds”.
Fallout from the release of millions of new documents related to Epstein has rippled through Europe. On Saturday, Paris prosecutors set up a dedicated team to review the files, coordinating with the financial prosecutor and national police.
The office said it was analysing several potential cases stemming from the Epstein files.
One concerns French diplomat Fabrice Aidan, alleged to have transferred United Nations documents to Epstein.
Aidan, who worked at the U.N. from July 2006 to April 2013, has rejected the accusations through his lawyer.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Gianluca Lo Nostro; editing by Richard Lough and Kevin Liffey)
