Former French tradition minister resigns amid Epstein hyperlinks investigation | EUROtoday

Jack Lang, France’s former Culture Minister, has stepped down from his position as head of a outstanding Parisian cultural centre following allegations of previous monetary ties to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The claims have prompted a tax investigation into Mr Lang and his daughter.

Mr Lang, a extremely influential determine in French politics recognized for his tenure as tradition minister underneath Socialist President François Mitterrand within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, was summoned by the French Foreign Ministry on Sunday earlier than submitting his resignation.

The ministry, which oversees the Arab World Institute, confirmed his departure on Saturday night.

The monetary prosecutors’ workplace has launched an investigation into Mr Lang and his daughter, Caroline, regarding alleged “aggravated tax fraud laundering”.

This follows a report final week by French investigative information web site Mediapart, which detailed purported monetary and enterprise hyperlinks between the Lang household and Jeffrey Epstein by means of an offshore firm based mostly within the US Virgin Islands.

Mr Lang’s title reportedly appeared over 600 instances within the Epstein recordsdata, launched by the US Department of Justice on 30 January, indicating intermittent correspondence between 2012 and 2019.

His daughter was additionally referenced within the paperwork. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has acknowledged the resignation and initiated the method to discover a successor for Mr Lang, who had led the Arab World Institute since 2013.

Lang denies any wrongdoing.

More Epstein recordsdata had been launched final week, and the file dump has heightened scrutiny of Epstein’s world connections with public figures, together with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the youthful brother of King Charles, and Peter Mandelson, the previous UK ambassador to the United States.

Mandelson is now dealing with a police investigation, whereas Andrew moved out of the Royal Lodge earlier this week after images appeared to point out him leaning over an unidentified lady mendacity on the ground.