Algeria Gate: A major investigation by the French newspaper Le Monde has revealed that the exclusive resort of Saint-Tropez in southern France was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s preferred destinations for recruiting and exploiting young women.
The late American financier and convicted sex offender, who died in prison in 2019, used the glamorous French Riviera as a second operational base after his apartment on Avenue Foch in Paris.
Epstein owned the Paris apartment since 2002 and visited Saint-Tropez nearly every summer for almost two decades. According to millions of documents released by the U.S. government, he and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell rented the luxurious Villa Mirage in Saint-Tropez in the summer of 2002 for approximately three weeks at a rate of €100,000 per week.
Email records also show Epstein attending high-profile social events in the area, including supermodel Naomi Campbell’s birthday party in 2004. He repeatedly explored renting or buying multi-million-euro properties along the French Riviera, with some offers reaching hundreds of millions of euros.
Epstein’s Recruitment Network on the French Riviera
Le Monde reports that Epstein’s exclusive parties in Saint-Tropez regularly mixed wealthy socialites, celebrities, and groups of young women. These gatherings took place in private villas, exclusive clubs, and aboard luxury yachts.
A central figure in the French side of the scandal was Jean-Luc Brunel, a well-connected modeling agent and close associate of Epstein. Investigators believed Brunel used his extensive contacts in the fashion industry to recruit young women and facilitate their introduction to Epstein. Brunel was later charged with rape and sexual assault of a minor before dying by suicide in a Paris prison in 2022.
Other intermediaries named in the investigation include French-Swedish modeling agent Daniel Siad, allegedly linked to the leader of the “MAK” terrorist movement and suspected of supplying Epstein with young women of various nationalities. Former fashion recruiter Ramsey El-Khouly also appears in correspondence connecting Epstein to models and aspiring models.
Victim Testimonies Place Saint-Tropez at the Center of Epstein’s Abuse
Several victims have directly linked Saint-Tropez to Epstein’s network of sexual exploitation. Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, stated that she was forced by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to have sexual relations with a French businessman during an incident in Saint-Tropez in 2001.
A French artist who met Epstein and Maxwell in Saint-Tropez when she was only 16 or 17 years old in the late 1990s later described being raped by Epstein in New York.
Epstein’s Plans to Settle Permanently in France
The Le Monde investigation further reveals that Epstein was actively planning to relocate to France. In 2019, shortly before his final arrest, he began selling properties in New Mexico and searching for a permanent home on the French Riviera with a budget potentially reaching tens of millions of euros. He was arrested in the United States on July 6th, 2019 after returning from France.
The revelations highlight how the glamorous image of Saint-Tropez and the French Riviera provided cover for one of the most notorious sex-trafficking networks of the modern era.
