Jeffrey Epstein Associate Jean-Luc Brunel Found Dead In Prison Cell

French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a longtime associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead in his prison cell, a Paris prosecutor’s office spokesperson said.

The body of Jean-Luc Brunel, 75, was found hanging in his cell in the early hours of Saturday during an overnight check by guards at the Paris prison, prosecutors said. Brunel was being held as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation.

The agent, who worked in Paris and New York, was arrested by police in December 2020 at Charles De Gaulle airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Senegal. Several models had accused him of sexual assault and rape, and French police had interviewed many potential witnesses in the case. Brunel had denied the allegations.

“Jean-Luc Brunel has never stopped claiming his innocence. He has multiplied his efforts to prove it. A judge had released him a few months ago, and then he was re-incarcerated in undignified conditions,” a statement by his lawyers read.

Brunel was released under judicial supervision for a few days in November 2021 before being returned to prison by the decision of the Paris Court of Appeals.

His death comes less than three years after Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in New York on August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death has since been ruled as a suicide.

Following the news of Brunel’s death, Virginia Giuffre tweeted on Saturday, “The suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel, who abused me and countless girls and young women, ends another chapter. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to face him in a final trial to hold him accountable, but gratified that I was able to testify in person last year to keep him in prison.”

A police inquiry has been launched into the circumstances involving his death.