Police raided the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as prosecutors widened an investigation into former French culture minister Jack Lang and his daughter, Caroline, over suspected financial links to Jeffrey Epstein, Euronews reported.

The searches at the institute and other locations followed a preliminary investigation opened earlier this month into alleged “laundering of aggravated tax fraud” involving the Langs, Euronews said.

Lang, who served as culture minister in the 1980s and early 1990s and is credited with launching France’s annual Fête de la Musique, resigned earlier this month from the presidency of the Arab World Institute after U.S. Justice Department-released documents showed his name appeared 673 times in correspondence with Epstein between 2012 and 2019, the news agency said. Lang had led the institute since 2013. 

The investigation into the Langs centers on Prytanee LLC, an offshore company founded in 2016 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Euronews said. 

That investigative news outlet Mediapart reported earlier this month that Caroline Lang set up Prytanee LLC on a 50-50 basis with Epstein in 2016. Prytanee, which was credited with more than €1 million via a Deutsche Bank account, was intended to invest in promising artists, with Epstein footing all of the costs, according to the report. 

In one January 2016 email quoted by Mediapart, Epstein described an arrangement in which he would put up $20 million, “Jacques” would buy art, and profits would be split 50/50, with proceeds going to Jack Lang or family members he designates. Epstein also suggested the vehicle could be called the “Lang Art fund,” and that his own name need not appear, Mediapart said. 

At other times, Epstein paid for travel-related costs for Jack, who has subsequently said that the deceased sex trafficker was never his friend and that he only knew Epstein through their mutual friend Woody Allen. 

The disclosure of Lang’s relationship with the deceased sex trafficker prompted President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to summon Lang to the Foreign Affairs Ministry before he resigned on February 8, according to Euronews.

The release of the Epstein files has separately spurred other investigations into well-heeled French nationals, including Jean-Luc Brunel, a former modeling agency executive who was accused of helping Epstein traffic underage girls and was facing charges when he was found dead in his prison cell from an apparent suicide in February 2022. 

Read more at Euronews