French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, suspected of playing the role of tout for American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and accused of rape by several former top models, was indicted Friday evening and remanded in custody.

Back on a sprawling affair. 

DECRYPTION

French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel was indicted Friday evening for "rape of a minor over 15" and "sexual harassment".

He is accused of having played the role of tout for the sulphurous Jeffrey Epstein.

At the center of a sprawling case of rape of minors and sexual harassment, this American billionaire was arrested in July 2019 before committing suicide in prison a few weeks later, sparking a torrent of questions and conspiracy theories.

Europe 1 takes stock of this headline-grabbing affair. 

What is the "Epstein affair"? 

The American financier Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and indicted in New York for having organized, between 2002 and 2005, a network made up of dozens of young girls, some college girls, with whom he allegedly had forced sex in his many properties. .

The plaintiffs, sometimes minors, always penniless at the time of the facts, say they were approached by "touts", near their school or at their work.

They say they were then persuaded, for a few hundred dollars, to come and give a massage, presented as non-sexual, to a powerful New Yorker ready to take their career off the ground.

Epstein allegedly used similar methods to attract and abuse young girls at his opulent Palm Beach, Florida residence and at his private island in the US Virgin Islands, known by some to be the "island of pedophilia."

Its prey arrived there in one of its private jets, nicknamed the "Lolita Express".

This sprawling and international affair was the subject of a Netflix documentary in 2020 involving dozens of plaintiffs, whose testimonies all have the same thread. 

The suicide of Jeffrey Epsetin, while being held in Manhattan Federal Prison, one of the safest in the country, sparked a torrent of questioning and conspiracy theories in the summer of 2019.

Although his autopsy confirmed suicide by hanging, many continue to suggest that he was murdered to protect the many personalities and power men he dated, from Prince Andrew to Bill Clinton. 

Friends of celebrities, full member of the American jet-set, Jeffrey Epsetin's address book looked like 

 international

Who's Who

.

But it also included "massage" sections with hundreds of names, contacts of young girls from several countries.

In a testimony dating from 2011, a complainant accused the financier of having abused very young French women who had been sent to her as a "surprise birthday present".

"Jeffrey was boasting (...) that they were 12 years old and that they had been brought from France because they are very poor and that their parents needed money", she indicated.

She also assured that these young girls had been sent to the United States by a former close to Epstein, the French Jean-Luc Brunel.

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Who is Jean-Luc Brunel? 

Alerted by the potential existence of French minors among the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation in August 2019. He was then interested in the role of Jean-Luc Brunel, founder of the modeling agencies Karin Models and MC2 Model Management.

Close to the American financier, his name appeared from the first investigation opened in the United States against Epstein and closed in 2007. In this first procedure, two women had already accused him of playing the role of tout for Jeffrey Epstein, leading to the States - United "young girls" from modest backgrounds by making them dangle jobs in modeling. 

At the time, disturbing messages had been found by the Florida police, including this one, noted in 2005 after a phone call from "Jean-Luc": "He has a teacher for you, to teach you how to speak Russian. She's 2x8, not blonde. "

The financier then pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitutes and was sentenced to 13 months in prison. 

What are the charges against him? 

From the opening of the preliminary investigation in August 2019, several former models were then out of silence to directly accuse Jean-Luc Brunel of rape.

The Dutch Thysia Huisman claims to have been "drugged and raped" by Jean-Luc Brunel in the 1990s. Virginia Giuffre, one of the main complainants in the Epstein case, also claimed to have been forced to have sex with Jean-Luc Brunel.

In 2015, then in cold blood with Epstein, Jean-Luc Brunel had announced actions in France and the United States to denounce these "allegations" but none of these procedures have prospered.

Friday evening, Jean-Luc Brunel was indicted for "rape of a minor over 15 years" and "sexual harassment".

Detained on remand, he was also placed under the intermediary status of assisted witness for acts of "aggravated human trafficking to the detriment of underage victims for the purpose of sexual exploitation".

This indictment suggests that investigators have discovered new charges against Jean-Luc Brunel. 

Who are the others implicated? 

Ghislaine Maxwell

.

Daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell, whom Jeffrey Epstein considered his "best friend" is accused by some of the financier's alleged victims of actively recruiting young teenage girls and participating in the abuse.

In a 2015 civil action against her and Jeffrey Epstein, Virginia Giuffre claims that Maxwell retained her in the 2000s as a "sex slave".

Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in July in the United States and charged with trafficking in minors. 

Prince Andrew

.

The name of Queen Elizabeth II's second son is often referred to as having been a friend of Jeffrey Epstein.

Virginia Giuffre accuses Ghislaine Maxwell of forcing her to have sex with him, while another woman accused him of indecent behavior.

He "categorically" denied the claims of his accusers.

Leslie Wexner.

 Billionaire boss of L Brands - known to be the parent company of lingerie brand Victoria's Secret - he is believed by some to have been the main financial backer of Jeffrey Epstein, who recruited him as a financial advisor in the end 1980s. According to the

New York Times

, Wexner trusted Epstein enough to give him a general power of attorney in the early 1990s, and cede his Manhattan home to him without any money exchanged.

A spokesperson for Leslie Wexner assured that he had cut ties with his ex-protégé 10 years ago.

George Mitchell.

Former special envoy of Bill Clinton and figure of the peace agreements in Northern Ireland, then special envoy of Barack Obama for the Middle East, George Mitchell saw his aura marred by documents revealed in 2019. Virginia Giuffre indeed affirms that 'she would have been forced by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with him but also with Bill Richardson, ex-ambassador of the United States to the United Nations under Bill Clinton.

Both flatly brushed aside these accusations.

Jeffrey Epstein has counted in his entourage Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

No one has suggested that the latter two took advantage of young girls recruited for Jeffrey Epstein.

But their names were cited for traveling on his private planes, and Epstein also frequented Donald Trump's Florida club in Mar-a-Lago.