Ten more. That is the number Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau gave on Sunday when asked how many previously unknown suspected victims had come forward since she publicly urged them to speak up in February. Combined with those already known to investigators, roughly 20 women have now contacted French authorities — and the inquiry is far from finished.

France opened a formal human trafficking investigation after the US Justice Department released more than 3 million additional pages of Epstein-related files in January, bringing the total publicly available trove to nearly 3.5 million pages, along with 180,000 images and 2,000 videos. The release was mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in November 2025.

Speaking on RTL radio, Beccuau said some of the 20 people who came forward were already known to investigators. “But we also had new victims come forward, ones we didn’t know at all,” she said. “There are around 10 of them.”

“The choice we’ve made for the time being is to listen to these victims,” she said. “A certain number of them are abroad so the investigators have tried to set up meetings to suit when they are able to come to Paris.”

A Paper Trail Reexamined

The investigation is being led by five magistrates working across two tracks: one focused on human trafficking — specifically recruitment and solicitation — and another on financial crimes including money laundering and tax fraud. The cases are being conducted in collaboration with the National Directorate of the Judicial Police, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, and several national offices.

Beccuau described the work as a “titanic task of analysis.” Investigators are combing through the newly released files, cross-referencing names mentioned by alleged victims against Epstein’s digital records. “We have also once again pulled out Mr Epstein’s computers, his telephone records, his address books,” she said, adding that her team would be “making requests for international assistance.”

French authorities first searched Epstein’s luxury Paris apartment in September 2019, a month after he was found hanged in his New York jail cell. His death was ruled a suicide. But it was not until the latest document dump that French prosecutors gained access to the full body of data now publicly available.

The French Connections

Several of the victims already known to investigators had previously testified in connection with other cases. Fifteen women in March urged France to investigate former European model agency boss Gerald Marie for possible links to Epstein. Investigators in 2023 closed an earlier probe into accusations that Marie committed sexual abuse in the 1980s and 1990s because the alleged offences were too old to prosecute.

The late model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, arrested by French authorities in 2020 on allegations of sexually abusing minors and procuring victims for Epstein, was found dead in his prison cell in 2022. Two former models have told AFP that a modelling scout named Daniel Siad groomed them — one for Epstein in the 2000s, another for Marie in the 1990s.

The investigation has also reached into France’s political class. In February, financial crimes prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into former culture minister Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline over suspected financial ties to Epstein. Lang, 86, has denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and resisted calls to resign as head of the Arab World Institute in Paris, according to Le Monde.

No One Questioned Yet

Despite the growing list of victims and leads, Beccuau was candid about the investigation’s current stage. “None of the people who could potentially be implicated have been questioned” so far, she said.

That detail underscores both the scale of the task and its early phase. The magistrates must first centralize and cross-reference the massive dataset before they can begin calling in suspects. The international dimension — victims scattered across borders, evidence spanning multiple jurisdictions — adds layers of complexity.

The broader picture is one of accountability inching forward, years after Epstein’s death made a criminal trial against him impossible. His 2008 guilty plea, for procuring a girl under 18 for prostitution, earned him just 13 months in custody. Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of trafficking underage girls for Epstein, is serving a 20-year sentence.

France’s investigation is one of several still unfolding internationally. What distinguishes it is the methodical, deliberate pace — and the fact that, more than half a decade after Epstein died, new victims are still finding their way to investigators.

Sources