“Want to find out about dinner with Nicolas Princen from the Elysée.” On Saturday, October 1, 2011, in an email to Jeffrey Epstein, the British millionaire Ian Osborne tried to confirm the details of their upcoming evening together. “Dinner ok,” Epstein replied. Osborne, who is now a board member at Havas, pressed further: “I just want to figure out if we do dinner out or at yours, and timings.” The American, then visiting Paris, responded, “Come to my house, bring your buddies. We can talk, have dinner and if I’m still awake, go out.” The exchange was part of the millions of documents released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in late January.

Speaking to Le Monde, Princen, who was at the time a close adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, recounted what happened next. He recalled “a large, very impersonal reception room where we talked. It was a strictly professional meeting.” Princen, now 42 and an entrepreneur in the education sector, said, “I remember a conversation that had no clear objective on his part, unlike discussions I usually had with entrepreneurs or foreign investors who wanted to learn more about France and perhaps invest in our country. (…) This man had no concrete project to propose, which made the meeting uninteresting and, in the end, rather pointless. That’s why I never followed up.”

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