In 2016, French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel was reportedly close to cooperating with U.S. prosecutors against Jeffrey Epstein, offering to testify about how he recruited girls for Epstein’s sex-trafficking operations and possessed incriminating material in exchange for immunity. Federal records show Brunel had discussions with lawyers for Epstein’s victims and was planning a meeting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office—suggesting he was prepared to provide evidence that could have significantly strengthened the case against Epstein years earlier. But once Epstein learned of these negotiations, Brunel suddenly went silent and ultimately never offered testimony, and prosecutors didn’t take immediate action at the time.


Brunel, who ran the modeling agency MC2 with Epstein’s financial backing and has long been accused of facilitating abuse by recruiting vulnerable women and girls under the pretense of modeling work, was not pursued by prosecutors in 2016 and Epstein remained free until his 2019 arrest. U.S. files show that this missed cooperation set back efforts to hold Epstein accountable and allowed his exploitation to continue. Brunel was later arrested in France in 2020 on sex-crime allegations and died in custody in 2022, but the earlier opportunity to challenge Epstein’s operations appears to have been lost when Brunel backed out of his planned cooperation.


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The accomplice who was going to testify against Jeffrey Epstein—then went dark