French police searched the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as part of an expanding investigation into the institution's former president, ex-culture minister Jack Lang, and his documented ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The raid, confirmed by France's National Financial Prosecutor, targeted the Arab World Institute along with several other locations. It came just over a week after prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of laundering the proceeds of aggravated tax fraud — a probe triggered by the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Lang, 86, resigned from the Arab World Institute earlier this month after his name appeared nearly 700 times in correspondence with Epstein spanning from 2012 to 2019 — more than a decade after the financier's 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

The timing of Monday's raid carried a certain irony. Police arrived at the institute as Lang was inside, delivering a farewell speech to former colleagues during a ceremony marking his departure after more than a decade as president.

"I'm pleased to see the financial judiciary is at work," Lang told the gathering. "I'm delighted because I have nothing to hide."

What investigators are looking at

The financial probe centers on Prytanee LLC, an offshore company founded in 2016 in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Caroline Lang held 50% of the shares in the entity, which held $1.4 million in its accounts and was described as a fund to support young artists. The company was not declared to French tax authorities.

Documents from the Epstein files also show that Lang and Epstein discussed a property transaction in Morocco, with Lang relaying an asking price of "€5.4 million, offshore." When questioned by the French investigative outlet Mediapart, Lang said he did "not remember this story very well" and believed he had "simply passed on the seller's demands with no further comment."

Epstein is also alleged to have paid $50,000 for a film to be made about Lang's political career.

Caroline Lang, a film producer, resigned from her position as head of the Independent Production Union on February 3, just three weeks after being appointed. She described Epstein as an "acquaintance" and said she had been "incredibly naive," but insisted she received "no remuneration, nor any benefit" from the fund.

She also appeared in a will signed by Epstein two days before his death in August 2019, which promised her $5 million. She told French public broadcaster France 2 that she had never heard of the will, had never seen such a document, and had never received any funds.

Both Jack and Caroline Lang have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Their lawyer, Laurent Merlet, told French broadcaster BFMTV earlier this month that "there was no movement of funds."

The Arab World Institute and its oversight

The Arab World Institute is a prominent cultural and research institution in Paris dedicated to promoting understanding of the Arab world. Inaugurated in 1987 and situated on the banks of the Seine, it operates under the supervision of France's Foreign Ministry, which is its largest financial contributor.

Lang had led the institute since 2013. His three-year mandate was renewed four times and had been scheduled to end in December. French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu summoned Lang to the Foreign Affairs Ministry before he tendered his resignation on February 8.

The institute's board of directors — which includes seven Arab ambassadors and seven senior French diplomats — is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss Lang's replacement. A candidate is expected to be put forward by the Foreign Ministry.

The institute said Monday that it could not comment on the police action.

Paris prosecutors assemble a dedicated Epstein team

The Lang investigation is not an isolated effort. On Saturday, the Paris prosecutor's office announced the formation of a special team of magistrates to systematically review the Epstein files for evidence that could implicate French nationals.

The team will work closely with prosecutors from the national financial crimes unit and the national police. Its stated purpose is "to be able to extract any piece that could be usefully reused in a new investigative framework."

Among the cases receiving attention is that of Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agency executive and close Epstein associate who was found dead in his cell at La Santé Prison in Paris in February 2022. Brunel had been charged with raping minors and was under investigation for sex trafficking at the time of his death. The case was dropped in 2023 following his death, with no other person charged.

Prosecutors said Brunel had engaged in sexual acts with underage girls in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Paris, and the south of France. Ten women had made accusations against him, several describing how they had been led to drink alcohol and subjected to forced sexual penetration.

The prosecutor's office also disclosed that three new cases had been referred for investigation involving French nationals.

The first concerns senior diplomat Fabrice Aidan, who worked at the United Nations from July 2006 to April 2013. Prosecutors are examining whether Aidan provided Epstein with "diplomatic information, services or his international networks," a referral that came at the request of the French Foreign Ministry. Aidan has rejected the accusations through his lawyer.

The second involves model recruiter Daniel Siad, who has close ties to Epstein. A Swedish woman has filed a complaint accusing Siad of rape in France in the 1990s. Siad has denied any wrongdoing.

The third case involves French conductor Frédéric Chaslin, against whom a complaint has been filed alleging acts of sexual harassment in 2016.

A widening European reckoning

The French investigations are part of a broader European reckoning with the Epstein files. In recent weeks, the fallout from the U.S. document release has reached political and business figures across the continent. Norwegian police searched properties belonging to former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland. Dubai's DP World replaced its chairman after Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem's connections to Epstein surfaced in the files. In the United Kingdom, a top aide to Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned over the appointment of a U.S. envoy with Epstein ties.

For France, the Lang case and the broader prosecutorial effort represent the most significant domestic response to the Epstein files to date. The preliminary inquiry into Lang does not necessarily lead to criminal charges — it is conducted on the basis of unverified information — but the scope of the investigation and the public nature of the raids signal that French authorities are treating the matter with considerable seriousness.

The fact that the probe reaches into a government-supervised cultural institution, involves a figure of Lang's political stature, and now encompasses multiple French nationals across diplomacy, the arts, and the fashion industry suggests the investigation is still in its early stages. Whether it produces charges or quietly fades will depend on what investigators find in the files — and in the financial records now being pulled from the offices along the Seine.