The Paris branch of HSBC’s private bank closed bank accounts held by Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 after suspicious transactions, including payments linked to a modeling agent later accused of rape and sex trafficking, according to a Bloomberg investigation. “We hereby inform you that we do not intend to continue our relationship,” the bank said in its letter, dated December 21, 2007 and obtained by Bloomberg from 18,000 emails from Epstein’s personal Yahoo account.
The letter did not give any reason for the closure of the account and was signed by two HSBC managers who managed the agency’s VIP account, which was located minutes from the luxury apartment near the Arc de Triomphe then occupied by the American financier accused of sexual exploitation of minors.
Bloomberg determined that the bank closed Epstein’s accounts after the financial transactions “involving young women” associated with French modeling agency MC2 and its owner, Jean-Luc Brunel. The emails obtained by Bloomberg discuss the obligation to file suspicious activity reports with Tracfin, France’s financial intelligence unit. It is unclear whether this report was ultimately produced.
Although Epstein divides his time between his properties in New York, Palm Beach and the Caribbean, emails obtained by Bloomberg show intense activity related to his Paris residence. They also revealed that the businessman has close links to Brunel – which helped launch the careers of supermodel Christy Turlington and actress Sharon Stone – and the once-famous MC2 modeling agency. One of Epstein’s assistants was even added to the agency’s payroll, according to the emails.
Brunel was arrested in 2020 as he prepared to board a plane from Paris to Dakar. He was charged with raping a minor over 15 years of age and detained. One of the main accusers is Virginia Giuffre, also one of Epstein’s accusers and Prince Andrew, who was recently stripped of his British royal titles. Giuffre committed suicide on April 25 this year, at the age of 41. He accused them of taking advantage of him “sex slave” when he was 17 years old.
Brunel was found dead in his cell in 2022, in an apparent suicide. More than a decade after the initial incident, on July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey. He returned from Paris on his private jet. In August 2019, days after the discovery of Epstein’s body in his cell, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened its own investigation to determine whether any French victims and perpetrators were connected to the American financier’s crimes.
