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21-05-2026
PARIS: A prosecutor in France has revealed that about 10 new suspected victims have come forward in the European country’s probe into the network of late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking with the RTL broadcaster, Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Sunday that about 20 suspected victims had made themselves known after her in February, urged potential victims to speak up.
While some were already known to investigators, she said; “new victims come forward, ones we didn’t know at all”.
“There are around 10 of them,” she added, noting, “The choice we’ve made for the time being is to listen to these victims.”
“A certain number of them are abroad, so the investigators have tried to set up meetings to suit when they are able to come to Paris,” the prosecutor said.
Following the release of the cache of files from the investigation into the disgraced financier by the United States Justice Department, France also opened a human trafficking investigation.
French magistrates are seeking to investigate possible offences committed in France or involving French perpetrators who facilitated Epstein’s crimes.
“We have also once again pulled out Epstein’s computers, his telephone records, his address books,” she said, adding that her team would be “making requests for international assistance”.
Epstein died in US prison in August 2019 while facing charges of trafficking underage girls for sex. The next month, French investigators searched Epstein’s luxury apartment in Paris.
Suspected victims already known to investigators included women who had spoken during probes into former European model agency boss Gerald Marie and late model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, reported media.
Fifteen women in March urged France to investigate Marie for possible links to Epstein. French authorities arrested Brunel in 2020 after allegations that he sexually abused minors and procured victims for Epstein. He was found dead in prison in 2022. Two former models have told media that a modelling scout named Daniel Siad groomed them with the aim of delivering them to Epstein in one case in the 2000s, and Marie in the other case in the 1990s.
However, a subcommittee in the United States Congress has subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi, compelling her to testify in a closed-door hearing as part of a probe into convicted former sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The subpoena was released on Tuesday, after the US House Oversight Committee voted in favor of issuing it earlier this month.
In Tuesday’s letter, committee chair James Comer explained that Bondi would be required to give a sworn deposition on April 14.
“The Committee has questions regarding the Department of Justice’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Comer wrote.
“As Attorney General, you are directly responsible for overseeing the Department’s collection, review, and determinations regarding the release of files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the Committee therefore believes that you possess valuable insight into these efforts.”
The media reported that the Department of Justice, which Bondi oversees, has yet to comment on the latest request.
Bondi separately testified before the House Judiciary Committee in February, with lawmakers grilling her over the handling of the Epstein files by the administration of US President Donald Trump. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
