Epstein revelations stir chaos from Scandinavia to South Asia

A French politician, famed as a cultural icon of the 1980s and 1990s. A Norwegian diplomat who played a role in the secret talks that yielded the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians. A well-connected Slovak former minister who served as president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Three prominent officials, tripped up by their associations with Jeffrey Epstein — and they are far from the only ones.

Epstein, the financier and convicted sexual offender, collected friends and associates in an astonishing array of places. Now, several of them are being brought down by the unsavoury details of their relationships — some after Epstein was convicted in 2008 — which were revealed in nearly three million pages of documents released by the Justice Department in the United States.

Jack Lang, who once served as France’s culture minister, announced on Saturday he would resign as head of the Arab World Institute, a prestigious cultural institution in Paris, after French authorities said they were investigating reports that he and his family had financial links to Epstein.

Mona Juul, who had been Norway’s ambassador to Jordan and Iraq, quit after disclosures of financial dealings between her and her husband, and Epstein. Miroslav Lajcak, the national security adviser to Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, stepped down following the release of emails between him and Epstein, in which the two men appeared to banter about young women.

“Clearly, he had a very extensive system,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said this week, referring to Epstein’s vast network of contacts. “This also fuels a lot of conspiracy theories and everything else.”

The friendship between Epstein and Peter Mandelson, a former British ambassador to Washington, has kicked up such a firestorm that it initially threatened to sink Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, who appointed him.

Prominent figures have been name-checked in several other countries, costing them their jobs, their reputations and even the threat of legal charges. As with the leaking of offshore bank account holders in the Panama Papers affair, the case of Epstein has laid bare privileged political and social circles from Scandinavia to South Asia.

So many prominent names have surfaced, in fact, that major world figures have felt pressure to disavow links to him. After social media reports that Epstein met the Dalai Lama, a statement issued on Sunday on behalf of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said he had never met Epstein nor authorised anyone to meet him.

India’s foreign ministry dismissed an email from Epstein, in which he appeared to take credit for the ingratiating approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a landmark State visit to Israel in 2017. Epstein’s claims, the statement said, were “little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal, which deserve to be dismissed with the utmost contempt.”

But the opposition Congress Party seized on the reference to suggest that Modi was vulnerable to manipulation by foreign “monsters.” Congress general secretary K C  Venugopal urged the prime minister on social media to “personally come clean on these disturbing disclosures.”

Political score settling has played a
part in the reaction in other countries. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played up disclosures of emails between Epstein and Ehud Barak, a former prime minister who has been a vocal critic of Netanyahu.

“Jeffrey Epstein’s unusual close relationship with Ehud Barak doesn’t suggest Epstein worked for Israel. It proves the opposite,” Netanyahu posted on social media on February 6. “Stuck on his election loss from over two decades ago,” he wrote, “Barak has for years obsessively attempted to undermine Israeli democracy.”

Speaking in December, Barak confirmed he attended lunches and dinners at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, but said he did not witness or take part in any sexual abuse. “I now deeply regret having any association with him,” he said.

In Slovakia, Prime Minister Fico portrayed the furore over Lajcak as an attack on him, saying his adviser’s resignation would deprive the country of “an incredible source of experience in diplomacy.” Lajcak told the Slovak Press Agency, “I was never offered sexual services, I never participated in any, I never witnessed any, and I never had any information about them.”

Commentators in Slovakia said those denials stretched credulity, given the locker-room tone of the emails between him and Epstein (in one, Lajcak told him that when it came to young women, “sharing is caring.”) There was no response to a text message, seeking comment, sent to a number that belonged to Lajcak.

In Norway, the police have begun investigating Juul and her husband, Terje Rod-Larsen, after media reports that the couple had been left $10 million in Epstein’s will. Norway’s foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, said Juul had “shown a serious failure of judgment.” Her lawyer said in a statement that she “does not recognise the accusations made against her.”

Few countries have been as shadowed by the disclosures as Norway. A former prime minister, Thorbjorn Jagland; the crown princess, Mette-Marit; and Borge Brende, an ex-foreign minister who
now runs the World Economic Forum, are all under scrutiny for their links. Norway’s Parliament on Tuesday set up an independent commission to investigate those ties.

Kare R Aas, who served as Norway’s ambassador to Israel, Afghanistan and the United States, said the disclosures had left diplomats in “sadness and anxiety.” He said he expected Juul and her husband to face a reckoning in the courts.

“No mercy in Norway on corruption, and Norwegians in higher positions such as politicians and ambassadors are no exception,” Aas said.

In France, Jack Lang’s case will be a conspicuous test of the price of having dealt with Epstein. In a prolific career, Lang is credited with creating popular cultural events and architectural landmarks. Now 86 and retired from politics, he has remained a respected figure in France through the Arab World Institute, which he has led since 2013 and which promotes Arab culture and values.

Lang is more a figure of folklore than someone who carries political weight, said Christine Ockrent, a Paris-based broadcaster. Still, she said, he “represents French culture, and Epstein probably thought he would get access to that through him.”

Lang’s name came up more than 600 times in the documents, with emails chronicling lunches, dinners, and business deals, dating back to 2012, when Lang said he and Epstein were introduced by a mutual friend, the filmmaker Woody Allen.

Epstein jointly owned an offshore fund with Lang’s daughter, Caroline, that Lang said Epstein set up to support up-and-coming artists, according to a French investigative website, Mediapart. Epstein also left Caroline, a film producer, $5 million in his will, according to Mediapart.

France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened a preliminary investigation of Lang and his daughter for “laundering of tax fraud proceeds.” Posting on social media, a defiant Lang said, “The accusations against me are unfounded, and I will prove this, despite the noise and fury of the media and digital courts.”