Paris, Feb 8: Jack Lang, France’s former Culture Minister, has resigned as president of the Arab World Institute following revelations of past financial connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, triggering a tax fraud probe.
Lang, a prominent Socialist figure under President Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s-90s, stepped down ahead of a Sunday summons from the Foreign Ministry, which oversees the institute. The ministry confirmed his resignation Saturday evening and began searching for a successor; Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has taken note.
Mediapart reported Lang family ties to Epstein via a US Virgin Islands offshore firm, with his name appearing over 600 times in DOJ-released Epstein files from Jan. 30—showing contacts from 2012-2019. His daughter Caroline is also named in the documents. Financial prosecutors launched an “aggravated tax fraud laundering” investigation into both. Lang led the institute since 2013.
