Jean-Luc Brunel, owner of the international modeling agency MC2, and Ofer Raphaeli, who owns the agency's Tel Aviv branch, allegedly helped Jeffrey Epstein recruit underage models, according to a Channel 12 report aired on Saturday night.
Channel 12 presented emails between Epstein and Brunel as evidence for these claims. In response, Raphaeli stated that he was consulting with a lawyer and was considering filing a defamation lawsuit against those involved in order to protect both his own reputation and the agency's standing in Israel.
Ofer Raphaeli, who founded the Israeli branch of MC2, gave an exclusive statement to Ma'ariv, saying: “I met Jeffrey Epstein only twice, by chance, for a few minutes. There was no friendship, business connection, or any other connection between us. The emails with New Year greetings and "Happy Holidays" were routinely sent to many recipients, including Epstein’s email address."
“I had a relationship with agent Jean-Luc Brunel," Raphaeli added. "I was unaware of any criminal activity by the agency in New York, and to the best of my knowledge, he was never convicted [of any crime]. The agencies in Miami and New York were closed several years ago. The agency in Israel has been under my ownership and management since its establishment in 2000, and I have never managed the New York branch except during my visit in 2004 for work purposes only."
Latest Epstein files release unleashes wave of antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media
Since the financial advisor and sex trafficker’s arrest by federal authorities in July 2019 and alleged death by suicide a month later, antisemitic conspiracy theories about him have circulated widely, often invoking his Jewish identity and connections with Jewish and Israeli leaders.
But the Justice Department’s newly released batch of Epstein files on February 6, which contained over 3 million pages of documents, took things to a new intensity.
“If you think Epstein was just some rich pedo, you’re missing the big picture,” wrote the X/Twitter account Clandestine, which has more than 734,000 followers. “Epstein was part of the satanic global elite that pulls the strings from the shadows. Epstein was a Deep State puppet master.”
Among the real revelations in the documents are a variety of exchanges of relevance to the broader Jewish world. Those include revelations that various Jewish nonprofits had courted Epstein for donations even after his conviction, evidence of Epstein’s financial ties with several Orthodox yeshivas, and new details about his well-known relationship with former prime minister Ehud Barak.
Some of the largest conspiracist personalities seized on the new document dump, claiming that it confirmed their longstanding beliefs about secret Jewish control.
“Remember the end of last year when I was called antisemitic for telling you this is the literal, religious worldview of many people in power?” Candace Owens, right-wing commentator turned conspiracist, wrote in a post on X responding to a photo of an email where Epstein used the term "goy." “Type in ‘goy’ or ‘goyim’ in the Epstein files and be sure to tag a Christian who needs to wake up and leave the Zionist cause.”
Grace Gilson/JTA contributed to this report.