Jack Lang, a former French tradition minister, has resigned as president of the Arab World Institute, the French Foreign Affairs Ministry mentioned on Saturday, after revelations of his previous contacts with Jeffrey Epstein and the launch of a financial investigation.
Earlier this Saturday, the French Financial Prosecutor’s Office had opened an investigation into Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of ‘aggravated tax fraud laundering.’
Calls for Lang to step down intensified since recordsdata launched on January 30 by the US Department of Justice confirmed Epstein and Lang corresponding intermittently between 2012 and 2019, when the financier died by suicide in jail.
French media, together with Le Monde, Le Figaro and Mediapart, mentioned the preliminary investigation had been opened after the US paperwork revealed years of correspondence and monetary hyperlinks between Lang and Epstein.
The workplace confirmed the investigation however didn’t present additional particulars.
Jack Lang had been summoned to report on Sunday to the Foreign Ministry, which supervises the Arab World Institute, a cultural and analysis establishment that promotes understanding of the Arab world.
Lang mentioned earlier on X that he welcomed the investigation “with serenity and even relief.”
“The accusations levelled against me are baseless, and I will demonstrate this, beyond the sound and fury of the media and digital courts,” he added.
Lang’s title seems greater than 600 instances within the Epstein recordsdata, in line with a Reuters evaluate of them. On Monday, Caroline Lang, a long-time media govt, resigned as head of France’s Independent Production Union after her personal hyperlinks to Epstein surfaced.
Jack Lang’s lawyer informed BFM TV that he would “prove that he is not involved in any malpractice or criminal offence”.
“There has been no movement of funds … But I think it is normal for the justice to want to verify this,” Laurent Merlet mentioned.
The file dump has heightened scrutiny of Epstein’s international connections with public figures together with Britain’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – the youthful brother of King Charles – Peter Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the United States and Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit.