Jean-Luc Brunel was arrested Wednesday at Charles de Gaulle Airport, according to prosecutors.
He was arrested for “rapes and sexual assaults, rapes and sexual assaults on children under 15, rapes and sexual assaults on children under 15, sexual harassment, criminal associations and trafficking in human beings to the detriment of minor victims to exploitation sex, “the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Brunel’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Paris investigation was launched on August 23, 2019 and is aimed at “acts of a sexual nature that have probably been committed by Jeffrey Epstein and possible accomplices,” prosecutors said.
In 2019, U.S. federal prosecutors alleged that Epstein ran a sex trafficking company between 2002 and 2005 in his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida. The indictment also said Epstein worked with employees and associates to lure the girls to their residences and paid some of his victims to recruit other girls to mistreat them.
Epstein died on August 10, 2019 while awaiting trial in federal prison.
In July this year, federal prosecutors in New York accused Ghislaine Maxwell of helping to recruit, prepare for, and ultimately sexually abuse under-14s as part of a sex trafficking ring allegedly operated on by Epstein.
She has pleaded guilty to the charges.