PARIS: The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office said on Saturday (Feb 7) it had opened an investigation into former Culture Minister Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline Lang on suspicion of “aggravated tax fraud laundering”, a move linked to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Pressure is rising on Lang to resign as president of the Arab World Institute in Paris since files released last week by the US Department of Justice show Epstein and Lang corresponding intermittently between 2012 and the financier’s 2019 death by suicide in jail.
French media, including Le Monde, Le Figaro and Mediapart, reported that the preliminary investigation was opened after US Justice Department documents revealed years of correspondence and financial links between Lang and Epstein, including offshore.
The office confirmed the investigation but did not provide further details.
Jack Lang, who denies wrongdoing, has been summoned by the foreign affairs ministry, the supervisory authority of the Arab World Institute, a cultural and research institution that promotes understanding of the Arab world.
“Jack Lang was a minister of state, he will make his decision in good conscience,” his lawyer Laurent Merlet told BFM TV, reacting to calls for Lang to leave the institution.