Updated ,first published
London: A special taskforce will be set up in Poland to investigate a network of “scouts” who recruited girls for Jeffrey Epstein from across Europe, including one contact who told him of a dancer who had come from Queensland.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the investigation would also examine potential ties between Epstein and Russian spy agencies amid claims the convicted sex offender gathered compromising material on people he could blackmail.
The move comes as British police open a criminal investigation into former British cabinet minister Peter Mandelson over emails to Epstein that passed on confidential policy advice from within the former Labour government of Gordon Brown.
The documents showed Mandelson forwarded internal advice on asset sales to Epstein and told his friend he would lobby the government on its policy on banking bonuses. Epstein approved cash payments worth tens of thousands of dollars to Mandelson’s partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
Brown accused Mandelson of an “inexcusable and unpatriotic act” and sent a letter to the police with background information to assist the investigation.
While the British scandal has highlighted Epstein’s ties with powerful business and political figures, the Polish taskforce will focus on the associates who helped the convicted sex offender draw young women and girls into his orbit.
The new documents, released by the US Department of Justice last Friday, include messages from Epstein associates telling him of young models or dancers they could recruit for him.
Tusk announced the taskforce at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“We cannot allow any of the cases involving the abuse of the Polish children by a network of paedophiles and the organiser of this satanic circle, Mr Epstein, to be treated lightly or ignored,” he said.
“The first pieces of information have appeared relating to the individuals who informed Mr Epstein from Krakow that they already had a group of Polish women or girls.
“We have decided to establish an analytical team and possibly also to launch an investigation, if our concerns over the scandal involving paedophilia in the US are confirmed.”
In a post on X, Tusk said: “There is a special place in hell for those who took part, for those who kept quiet and for those who tried to conceal it.”
The Polish taskforce is the first national investigation into Epstein outside the US and follows the release of thousands of emails that revealed more about the way he sought out young women and girls.
In one example from the new documents, Epstein told a contact in June 2017 to send him a “full-body shot” and passport details of a woman they discussed.
“Now she is really skinny I will do Polaroid,” said the contact, Daniel Siad, a former fashion photographer.
“Does she want to come to paris on sun?” Epstein replied.
“I will invite,” Siad replied.
“She is nice her boobs are awful. they will have to be redone,” Epstein wrote.
In an email in February 2012, a contact whose name was redacted sent Epstein a video file with the subject “Australia” and a question: “Umm?”
Epstein replied: “nudes only.”
Siad is described in the Department of Justice documents as a “scout” or recruiter of girls. He was known to Jean Luc Brunel, a French modelling agent who associated with Epstein and was charged in 2020 with rape and trafficking minors. Brunel was found hanged in his prison cell in Paris in February 2022.
In an email in June 2011, Siad told Epstein of a dancer from Australia who might move to the US to see the financier.
“Dancer here in Moulin Rouge she modelled in Australia Queens Land [sic],” he wrote. The document does not show Epstein’s reply.
The emails between Siad and Epstein cover a period from at least 2009 to 2019, when the financier died in prison.
In May 2009, Siad told Epstein he had girls waiting in locations such as Poland. He said he was on his way to Krakow and wanted to visit Slovakia and Hungary.
In one of their last exchanges, in April 2019, Epstein asked Siad to contact him from Havana.
Tusk said the goal of the taskforce was to explore every link to Poland and gain justice for victims, but he also raised the idea that Epstein was connected to Russian spy agencies such as the KGB.
“More and more commentators and experts assume that it is very probable that this was a prepared operation by the Russian KGB, the so-called honey trap,” Tusk said.
British journalist Andrew Marr noted the way Epstein recruited young Russian girls and had referred often to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also noted the way Epstein collected compromising photographs of business and political leaders.
“Doesn’t it make you wonder, at least, about the possibility of a KGB operation big enough to ensnare former presidents and prime ministers and the leaders of some of the world’s most powerful companies,” he said.
David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.