Modeling agent close to Epstein found dead in French jail cell
A modeling agent PARIS — who was close to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead Saturday in his French jail cell, where he was being held in an investigation into the rape and sex trafficking of minors, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Paris police are investigating Jean-Luc Brunel’s death at the historic La Sante prison in Paris, the prosecutor’s office said.
Victims of his alleged abuse described shock and dismay that the 75-year-old, a wellknown model scout in the 1980s and 1990s who ran different agencies in Paris and New York, will never face trial. They called his death a double blow after Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting sex-trafficking charges.
Brunel’s lawyers suggested Saturday that he, too, killed himself. In a statement, they described his “distress” at his incarceration and his repeated requests for a provisional release from the prison.
“Jean-Luc Brunel never stopped declaring his innocence,” they said. “His decision was not guided by guilt, but by a deep sentiment of injustice.”
The lawyers would not further comment on what happened, and it was unclear whether the jail had suicide prevention measures in place.
Brunel was detained at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020 as part of a broad French probe unleashed by the U.S. sex-trafficking charges against Epstein. A frequent companion of Epstein, Brunel was considered central to the French investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls by the U.S. financier and his circle. Epstein traveled often to France and had apartments in Paris.
One of Epstein’s main accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has alleged that Brunel procured women, some minors, for sex with Epstein and other wealthy people, luring them with promises of modeling work.
Multiple women who identified themselves as victims have spoken to police since the French probe began in 2019, and at times expressed frustration with the slow pace of the investigation.