In his last days as a free man, busy in his part-time home of Paris, Jeffrey Epstein did not appear like someone who dreaded a legal reckoning. There were meetings with architects and interior decorators. A dinner with Norwegian diplomats. Appointments with a Russian French mathematician and a Kuwaiti former official.<\/p>\n
It was a Paris sojourn like countless others for Mr. Epstein, whose every-other-month visits since the early 2000s had been a mix of restless networking, real estate shopping and, according to testimon<\/a>y gathered by French prosecutors<\/a>, systematic sex trafficking.<\/p>\n It was a playbook used by Mr. Epstein in every place he lived: From Manhattan to Palm Beach, Fla., he sought out well-connected fixers to help him befriend influential people, and then cultivated those relationships in a way that stamped a veneer of respectability on a life of sordid criminal activity.<\/p>\n Young women, some trafficked to him by a French model scout, Jean-Luc Brunel, according to prosecutors, were regular visitors to Mr. Epstein\u2019s grand, if garishly decorated, apartment. Mr. Epstein\u2019s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges came on July 6, 2019, after he made a final flight on his private plane from Paris to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.<\/p>\n The three million-plus pages of Epstein-related documents released in January by the Justice Department provide, for the first time, an insider\u2019s view of Mr. Epstein in Paris \u2014 a socially ambitious expatriate, eager to mingle in French high society, if not always successfully. His apartment on Avenue Foch, a tree-lined boulevard that is the Park Avenue of Paris, was at once an opulent salon and an oversize pied-\u00e0-terre.<\/p>\n \u201cParis is great,\u201d Mr. Epstein said in a characteristically typo-flecked 2011 email to Terje Rod-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat with whom he had a long friendship, \u201cwasn\u2019t there somenone here you thought i should meet.?\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Rod-Larsen replied with the name Olivier Colom, whom he described as a \u201cclose adviser to Sarko,\u201d a common nickname for Nicolas Sarkozy, then the president of France. \u201cShall I set up a meeting?\u201d Mr. Rod-Larsen asked.<\/p>\n Mr. Colom was to become one of Mr. Epstein\u2019s closest contacts. A well-connected diplomat, he later worked as a banker for Ariane de Rothschild, the chief executive of Edmond de Rothschild Group, who was also a friend of Mr. Epstein\u2019s.<\/p>\n The two men traded dozens of emails, captured in the Justice Department files, on subjects ranging from international finance to women. But access to Mr. Sarkozy was never far from Mr. Epstein\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n In June 2013, after the president had left office, Mr. Epstein suggested seeking a meeting during his next visit to Paris. He also inquired if Mr. Colom had made progress in recruiting a female assistant to work for him.<\/p>\n \u201cSarkozy leaves Paris on 9 July unfortunately to go on vacation on the riviera\u2026.\u201d Mr. Colom replied. \u201cAbout your assistant, am asking around,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you need to hire a not-too-good-looking one\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n With no date with Mr. Sarkozy on the calendar, Mr. Epstein raised the idea of a meeting again a few months later: \u201cis sarkozy around,\u201d he emailed Mr. Colom, \u201cId like to meet him, if you think fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Colom promised to ask Mr. Sarkozy about it the following month. \u201cHe can be fun,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd he can speak English now!\u201d<\/p>\n A representative of Mr. Sarkozy said he did not know Mr. Epstein personally and had never invited him anywhere. Mr. Colom could not be reached for comment; he has expressed regret in the French media for his relationship with Mr. Epstein.<\/p>\n With Mr. Epstein, access was a two-way street. His French friends were not shy about asking for favors. In 2013, Mr. Colom emailed to ask, \u201cCould you organize a discreet meeting between Sarko and Hillary Clinton in NY?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cmeetingswith Hillary are noteasily discreet,\u201d Mr. Epstein replied. \u201cWhen ?\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Clinton, testifying before the House committee investigating the Epstein case in February, said she was not aware of any approach from him. \u201cI find it kind of weird because I know Sarkozy,\u201d she added. \u201cIf somebody was seeking a meeting with me and Sarkozy, he would not have needed to go through anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n With his money and acquisitive eye, Mr. Epstein seemed intent on collecting a portfolio of trophy properties in France. He took a long look at Ch\u00e2teau de Guermantes, an 18th-century estate east of Paris, before backing out because it was too noisy, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.<\/p>\n He also made a bid for H\u00f4tel Lambert, a mansion in Paris, which he talked of converting into a mathematics institute. After the owner sniffed at his offer of 55 million euros ($63 million), Mr. Epstein asked for a signed contract at 60 million euros, these two people said, saying he did not want to bid against himself. It was later sold to an Arab prince.<\/p>\n But Mr. Epstein seemed at home in the apartment at 22 Avenue Foch, holding on to it from 2001 until his death in August 2019, which has been ruled a suicide. (Mr. Brunel was also found hanged in his prison cell, in 2022, while facing rape charges.) A Bulgarian businessman, Georgi Tuchev, bought the apartment from Mr. Epstein\u2019s estate in 2022 for about 10 million euros, according to Bloomberg News.<\/p>\n Sprawling over nearly 7,400-square-feet on the second floor of an early-19th-century building, the apartment featured a study with padded orange walls and a cavernous gym, with images of women\u2019s body parts, according to police records. Like his other houses, it had a massage room.<\/p>\n In 2015, according to documents released by the Justice Department, Mr. Epstein paid 1.2 million euros ($1.38 million) to have the apartment redone by a Parisian decorator, Alberto Pinto. The living room alone cost more than 665,000 euros. Pictures taken during a police raid, and published by the French media, showed tabletop photographs of Mr. Epstein with famous figures: kneeling before Pope John Paul II and dining with Woody Allen.<\/p>\n Mr. Epstein, however, struggled to fully ingratiate himself with France\u2019s political elite. His most lasting contact was with Jack Lang, who served as culture minister during the 1980s under President Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand. A charismatic figure who created popular cultural events, Mr. Lang, 86, nevertheless had long lost the political influence he wielded during the heyday of his career.<\/p>\n Still, Mr. Epstein savored the association, dining with Mr. Lang at chic restaurants and joining him at art exhibits and film premieres, according to emails. In May 2018, Mr. Lang\u2019s daughter Caroline, a film producer, emailed Mr. Epstein to propose that he join her father at a reception at a luxury hotel. There will be \u201ca lot of intellectuals,\u201d she promised.<\/p>\n \u201cOk,\u201d he replied, with customary brevity.<\/p>\n Mr. Epstein liked to play the role of deep-pocketed friend. In March 2014, he emailed Mr. Lang to say he would \u201cpick up all expenses\u201d for a trip to New York or the Caribbean. Mr. Lang and his wife, Monique, thanked Mr. Epstein for the \u201cnice gesture\u201d and agreed to accompany him on a subsequent trip to Marrakesh, Morocco.<\/p>\n The largess extended to Mr. Lang\u2019s daughter. Mr. Epstein jointly owned an offshore fund with Caroline that she said Mr. Epstein started to support up-and-coming artists, according to a French investigative website, Mediapart. Mr. Epstein also left Caroline $5 million in his will, according to Mediapart.<\/p>\n French prosecutors are investigating Mr. Lang and his daughter for \u201claundering of tax fraud proceeds.\u201d<\/p>\n A lawyer for Jack and Caroline Lang, Laurent Merlet, said Mr. Lang never accepted free vacations from Mr. Epstein. He said they met twice a year in \u201centirely social and mundane circumstances.\u201d Caroline Lang, Mr. Merlet said, took no money from the offshore fund and was stunned to discover she had been left money by Mr. Epstein.<\/p>\n Five months before Mr. Epstein\u2019s death, Mr. Lang invited him to attend a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the pyramid entrance to the Louvre, designed by the architect I.M. Pei \u2014 a project Mr. Lang had championed.<\/p>\n \u201cNow at the pyramid. With the entire govt.,\u201d Mr. Epstein texted one of his newer friends, Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump. \u201cThe ministers of the elite,\u201d he said. Mr. Epstein attached a photograph of himself, in sunglasses and a stylishly draped overcoat, standing alone with Mr. Lang.<\/p>\n \u201cPowermove,\u201d Mr. Bannon texted back.<\/p>\n Daphn\u00e9 Angl\u00e8s contributed research. Ana Castelain contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his last days as a free man, busy in his part-time home of Paris, Jeffrey Epstein did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3828,3826,5,3829,3827,30,3825],"class_list":["post-4046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-brunel","tag-epstein","tag-france","tag-jean-luc-1946","tag-jeffrey-e-1953","tag-paris","tag-paris-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}