Who from France's political and cultural elite are named in the Epstein files?

Several French personalities have been mentioned in the latest trove of files to be released from the probe into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

A mere mention in the documents in no way implies any wrongdoing.

But one French film producer has resigned after allegations she owned shares in a company with Epstein.

Others – who appear to have been in touch with Epstein after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence – have said they had no idea about his history and were in no way involved in any crime.

Here are some of them:

Ex-minister and his daughter

Fresh documents released by the US Justice Department last week contained emails between prominent figures and the disgraced financier, who was found dead in prison in 2019 while in prison facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls. His death was ruled a suicide.

Some have revealed warm relations, financial dealings and private images.

An AFP review of part of the emails showed former high-profile French culture minister Jack Lang, now 86, once tried to sell Epstein a friend's property in the Moroccan region of Marrakesh.

"He prefers that we speak about it directly," an email screenshot shows him as having written in March 2015, then quoting the price as "5,400,000 euros, offshore".

Lang, who spent nearly 20 years as culture minister and education minister in different governments, on Wednesday said he would not step down from his current position as president of the Paris-based Arab World Institute.

A source close to President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that the presidency and prime minister's ‌office had asked relevant ministers to summon Lang and encourage him to "think about the institution". The foreign ministry said it had summoned Lang to a meeting on Sunday.

Lang said on Monday that he first met Epstein through acclaimed US filmmaker Woody Allen – who never shook allegations that he molested his adopted daughter in 1992 – "about 15 years ago".

He said he was "completely shocked" when he discovered Epstein's crimes.

But his daughter Caroline Lang, a film producer, resigned on Monday as head of the Independent Production Union.

French investigative website Mediapart reported earlier in the day that Epstein had in 2016 founded a company based in the US Virgin Islands, half of whose shares were owned by Caroline Lang.

She said Epstein was an "acquaintance" and a "generous sponsor", and they had planned to set up a fund to buy artworks, but that she had not received any money from the fund.

The orchestra conductor

Frederic Chaslin, an orchestra conductor who is now 63, in an email dated September 2013 told Epstein he had found him a girl.

"I found a great girl for your next stay in Paris. Student in philosophy. 21," he wrote, then adding in a second email she was "of course perfectly fluent" in French, English and Spanish.

But Chaslin has categorically refuted as false what he called "insinuations" he was associated to Epstein's crimes.

"He had asked me to recommend an interpreter to accompany him on visits to Parisian museums," he wrote on Facebook earlier this week.

Read moreUS Justice Dept's Epstein files release exposes nude photos, names of victims

The presidential adviser

Businessman Olivier Colom, an adviser from 2007 to 2012 to right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy, regularly corresponded with Epstein from 2013 to 2018 when the Frenchman was working at a bank.

Colom sought to facilitate political networking and organised a 2013 meeting between his boss at the bank and Epstein. But in more personal conversations, they at times joked in a sexist or racist tone. Epstein in one exchange in June 2013 compared women to "shrimp", saying "you throw away the head and keep the body".

AFP was not immediately able to reach Colom, 56, for comment.

An initial search of the new archive showed no direct correspondence between Epstein and Sarkozy.

The film director

Michel Hazanavicius met Epstein for the first time a month after his film "The Artist" was awarded at the Oscars in 2012, at a dinner that the financier held in March that year in Paris, also attended by film director Allen, according to email exchanges in the files seen by AFP.

They corresponded directly until January 2014. In these emails, Epstein suggested they meet up in Paris or New York, but the director often said he was too busy.

Hazanavicius told AFP he "twice met the guy", who he said was introduced as a friend of Allen.

But his partner, "The Artist" female lead Berenice Bejo, soon advised him to stay away.

"At one point he asked me if I knew a nice, smart girl – and that's when Berenice told me 'never again, you have to run away from that guy'," he said.

They decided not to see him again – though he had "no idea who he was", Hazanavicius added.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)