JEFFREY Epstein’s best mate has been tracked down to South America by cops after he was accused of supplying underage girls to the paedophile billionaire. French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, 74, went “missing” in the wake of Epstein’s death having been accused of being the financier’s “fixer” and “pimp”. French investigators have now located him […]
JEFFREY Epstein’s best mate has been tracked down to South America by cops after he was accused of supplying underage girls to the paedophile billionaire.
French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, 74, went “missing” in the wake of Epstein’s death having been accused of being the financier’s “fixer” and “pimp”.
French investigators have now located him in South America but it is unclear if prosecutors have been able to speak to him yet.
Newspaper Le Parisien did not indicate which country he was thought to be in.
French prosecutors last month launched a probe into claims Epstein attacked underage girls in Paris, and reportedly wanted to quiz Brunel.
In the early 1990s a Dutch model accused Brunel of drugging and raping her.
The Frenchman has also been implicated in US court papers in procuring girls for Epstein, including three sisters aged 12.
Brunel denied involvement “directly or indirectly” in any of Epstein’s offences in a statement issued in 2015.
It said: “I strongly deny having committed any illicit act or any wrongdoing in the course of my work.”
Alleged victim Virginia Roberts has claimed Brunel “farmed out” modelling hopefuls to Jeffrey Epstein, as well as other men, for sex.
She has also claimed she was forced to have sex with Brunel at Epstein’s home and that he once set up a photoshoot with seven Russian girls which Prince Andrew watched.
But the Duke of York, a former friend of Epstein’s, has strongly denied he was on his private Caribbean island when the allegations are said to have taken place.
An unnamed friend of Brunel’s told the French paper: “As part of his professional activities, he organised agency dinners frequented by very pretty girls. And to balance things out, men were invited but it didn’t go any further than that.”
A search of Karin Models, the agency founded by Brunel in 1978, as well as Epstein’s Paris flat took place earlier this week.
Brunel has not been named by French investigators and he has not been charged with any crimes.
Roberts, now Virginia Guiffre, repeated her claims last week she romped with Prince Andrew when she was 17 after he plied her with vodka at London’s Tramp nightclub.
The royal has vehemently denied the accusations against him, branding them “false” and “without foundation”.
Buckingham Palace said at the time: “It is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts.
“Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.”
Epstein was found hanged in his New York prison jail cell on August 10 in an apparent suicide.
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