Paris, 08 February (H.S.): Jack Lang, the venerated former French culture minister and president of the prestigious Arab World Institute (IMA) since 2013, proffered his resignation on Saturday, precipitating a seismic ripple through France's cultural echelons in the wake of damning revelations from the latest Jeffrey Epstein document trove.
Resignation Catalyst: Epstein Files and Prosecutorial Scrutiny
In a missive dispatched to Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on February 7, 2026—the very eve of his ministry summons—86-year-old Lang tendered his immediate abdication from IMA leadership, pending the ensuing board convocation. This preemptive maneuver followed French prosecutors' Friday announcement inaugurating a preliminary inquiry against Lang and his daughter Caroline for laundering of aggravated tax-fraud proceeds, precipitated by their recurrent citations exceeding 670 instances across the unsealed Epstein correspondences.
Lang, who vehemently repudiated the imputations as baseless prior to his resignation overture, avowed the probe would vindicate his probity and honour, attributing his Epstein nexus solely to soliciting philanthropic succor from the convicted sex trafficker—whose statutes curiously enshrined Lang's name in a 2016 offshore entity, a disclosure that purportedly shocked him.
Barrot expeditiously acknowledged the proffered resignation on February 7, 2026, inaugurating protocols for an interim IMA steward.Broader Fallout: Familial and Institutional RepercussionsCaroline Lang, antecedently ensconced as president of the Union of Independent Producers (SPI)—championing France's indie filmmakers—had already relinquished her post amid the maelstrom.
Epitomizing Epstein's insidious tendrils ensnaring global elites, Lang emerges as France's paramount public figureage implicated, notwithstanding that mere archival mention does not predicate culpability; his entwinement ostensibly pivoted on Epstein's feigned benefactor persona rather than complicity in depravities.
This dénouement, unfolding February 7, 2026, reverberates against contemporaneous scandals, including ex-UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson's Labour Party exodus over parallel Epstein liaisons.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
