The daughter of former French culture minister Jack Lang has stepped down from her post as head of a film producers’ union following renewed scrutiny of the family’s past links to disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Caroline Lang, a film producer and former actor, resigned on Monday as president of the Independent Production Union (SPI), just three weeks after taking up the role.
Her decision followed investigative reports detailing her and her father’s historical connections to Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
“I do not want this situation to in any way harm the union,” Caroline Lang said in a statement announcing her resignation.
Eighty-six-year-old Jack Lang, who served for nearly two decades as culture and education minister under several governments, said he had been introduced to Epstein around 15 years ago by the American actor and director Woody Allen, and insisted that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities at the time.
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Family ties under scrutiny
According to the French daily Le Monde, Jack Lang maintained sporadic contact with Epstein over several years and at times requested practical favours, including use of the financier’s car or private plane for himself or family members.
Further details were reported by investigative outlet Mediapart, which revealed that Epstein founded a company in 2016 based in the US Virgin Islands, with half of its shares held by Caroline Lang.
The company, Prytanee LLC, was reportedly intended to support investments in art.
Mediapart stressed that none of the US Justice Department documents it reviewed suggested that either Jack or Caroline Lang had been implicated in Epstein’s sexual crimes.
Caroline Lang described Epstein as an “acquaintance” and a “generous sponsor”, saying they had discussed setting up an art investment fund but that she had not received any money from it.
She told Mediapart that while Epstein’s lawyers had established the company, she herself had not invested financially, instead contributing her knowledge of art.
Looking back, she said she had been “incredibly naive”.
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Statements, denials and fallout
Jack Lang, who has served as president of the Paris-based Arab World Institute since 2013, said he was “completely shocked” when Epstein’s crimes became public.
“I fully accept the ties I may have formed at a time when nothing suggested that Jeffrey Epstein could be at the heart of a criminal network,” he said in a statement. “Had I known, I would have immediately cut off all contact with him.”
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal charges of trafficking underage girls.
His death did not end public interest in his network, with newly released documents continuing to prompt scrutiny of figures who crossed his path.
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Among those named in the latest tranche of files is French conductor and composer Frederic Chaslin, who has strongly rejected suggestions arising from a 2013 email exchange with Epstein.
In the email, Chaslin wrote that he had “found a formidable girl” for Epstein’s next stay in Paris – a phrase that has since drawn criticism.
In a Facebook post responding to reporting by Diapason magazine, Chaslin said it was “totally unacceptable and false” to suggest he had procured a woman for Epstein.
He said the financier had asked him to recommend an interpreter to accompany him on museum visits, and that this was the sole purpose of the message.
The email described a 21-year-old philosophy student who, Chaslin wrote, resembled the wife of director Roman Polanski.
At the time the email was sent, Epstein had already been convicted in Florida of soliciting an underage person for prostitution.
(with newswires)
