At this stage, these two affairs which are shaking the fashion world are not related. Indicted for two rapes on a minor over 15 years old, model agent Jean-Luc Brunel has been in pre-trial detention since December. Former European boss of the Elite agency, Gérald Marie is meanwhile targeted by an investigation for “rape” and “sexual assault”, and half a dozen ex-top models came to testify, at the beginning of September, in front of the brigade. minors in Paris.
According to our information, French investigators are interested in the links between Jean-Luc Brunel and Gérald Marie and in the similarities between the facts denounced – which are disputed by the two men. Officially fierce competitors in the 1980s, they knew each other and frequented the same places. Until joining forces in 2006, when Jean-Luc Brunel launched the E Management agency in the United States with funds from Jeffrey Epstein, then signed a partnership with Elite Paris, managed at the time by Gérald Marie.
Friendly competition
The relationship between the two “scouts” dates back to the late 1970s. a Technikart survey, Jean-Luc Brunel makes his ranges in the Girls agency of Claude François, then slams the door of Paris Planning when Gérald Marie arrives. After a break in Ibiza, where he opened a bar, Brunel took over Karin Model. In particular, he launched the careers of Monica Bellucci and Estelle Lefébure. Gérald Marie, him, joined his former enemy John Casablancas to take the head of Elite Europe. He took part in the “supermodel” revolution and, moreover, married one: Linda Evangelista.
The two agents spend their nights at the Bains douches, surrounded by young models – some are only 15 or 16 years old. Champagne is flowing freely, cocaine is never far away. “They were there almost every night. They each had a table but it got mixed up a lot. My impression is that they were rather friends, ”remembers Claude Challe, the former patron of the temple of Parisian nights. “We all saw each other at the Baths, and we all pretended we were friends. It was there. The competition largely took the upper hand on these pretenses ”, tempers a former colleague of Gerald Marie. Jean-Luc Brunel regularly organizes afters in his apartment on avenue Hoche. A former employee of Karin, present at several evenings, remembers having crossed the whole Hollywood there, in particular Roman Polanski, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas.
The fall
In 1988, Jean-Luc Brunel was accused of rape in a report by the American channel CBS. He left France and went to the United States, where he met Jeffrey Epstein, who dreams of opening his own agency, like playboys John Casablancas and Donald Trump. Gérald Marie is at the heart of an investigation undercover of the BBC in 1999, which accuses Elite executives of delivering young girls to club promoters and their wealthy friends. Gérald Marie falters, but Elite takes the BBC to court, denouncing a mounting charge. An amicable agreement is reached and the British channel recognizes that its investigation “did not reveal the sexual exploitation of young models”.
The agency does not come out unscathed. A price cartel conviction brings her to her knees. Elite SA filed for bankruptcy in 2004, and the New York branch was auctioned off. the New York Post said at the time that a wealthy financier was in the ranks: Jeffrey Epstein. Contacted by 20 minutes, a former executive confirms receiving a phone call from Epstein, who wanted to know more about the price. But he has, according to him, never made an official offer. It was Florida real estate developer Eddy Trump – not related to Donald – who ultimately won the $ 8 million stake. Elite Paris and Gérald Marie find themselves without a presence in the United States.
“E = MC2”
In U.S. court documents that 20 minutes was able to consult, Jean-Luc Brunel claims to have “received, in 2006, a line of credit from Jeffrey Epstein (…) then made an investment of one million dollars with Elite Paris to create a business”. Its name: E Management. According to our information, the structure was located in the New York offices of Brunel’s other agency, MC2 (formerly Karin Model USA). The equation “E = MC2” was, according to rumors reported at the time by PageSix, a not really subtle reference to the initials of Epstein, who started out as a physics teacher at a prestigious private high school.
Contacted by 20 minutes, Gerald Marie’s lawyer, Céline Bekerman, denounces “fanciful” statements by Jean-Luc Brunel. “Elite Paris has never had the slightest financial participation in the company E Management and has never maintained any link, directly or indirectly, with Mr. Jeffrey Epstein,” she certifies. At the time, agencies often networked on both sides of the Atlantic, with partnerships to send models from one to the other, while retaining their financial independence.
The e-managementny.com website no longer exists today. But in an archive from October 2006, the agency listed a roaster of 25 models, most of them signed by Karin or Elite. A Frenchwoman, represented at the time by Elite Paris in Europe, confirms to 20 minutes have briefly signed with E Management in the United States. She wishes to stress that she “never had any problem with Gérald Marie, who has always been very professional,” nor with Jean-Luc Brunel.
What role did Jeffrey Epstein play? Mathias Chichportich and Marianne Abgrall, lawyers for Jean-Luc Brunel, assure 20 minutes that the million dollar line of credit was a loan, not an investment. “Jean-Luc Brunel has never been associated with Jeffrey Epstein. E Management is a structure that only lasted a few months to collaborate with Elite Paris. The line of credit has been repaid, ”they insist, without providing proof.
A former collaborator of Jean-Luc Brunel delivers a different version: “Jean-Luc told me about a millionaire friend who was going to invest, and he invited me to a sumptuous residence in Manhattan. I remember being uncomfortable with Jeffrey Epstein and his old-fashioned flirtatious energy. It is besides the lawyer of Epstein, Darren Indyke, who registered E Management LLC with the administration of New York. “The fact that it was filed by the lawyer of Jeffrey Epstein does not make him a partner of the company,” reply the lawyers of Jean-Luc Brunel.
What is certain is that E Management almost immediately closed its doors after the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein by the Palm Beach police in July 2006. Ten years later, in its complaint against the American child criminal, that he accuses him of having made him lose “millions” of dollars, Jean-Luc Brunel notably cited this aborted partnership as an example of loss of earnings: “Elite did not send models, for fear of being connected to Epstein. “
For fifteen years, the two French agents continued their activity, each on their own, without being worried. But after the explosion of the #MeToo movement in Hollywood, the word is released in the world of fashion after the arrest, then the suicide, of Jeffrey Epstein in August 2019. Last week, a dozen models who accuse Gérald Marie and Jean-Luc Brunel asked for the imprescriptibility of sexual crimes against minors during a conference organized in the Senate. Nathalie Goulet, the senator of Orne, pleaded for a “revision of the limitation periods and the obligation of a code of good conduct for the agents”. At least to protect future generations.