Axel Dumas, chief executive of the French luxury house Hermes, acknowledged Thursday that he met Jeffrey Epstein in 2013 when the convicted sex offender invited himself to a workshop visit with actor Woody Allen and other guests.
“I had one single contact with Jeffrey Epstein, it was in March 2013,” Dumas said as the company presented its full-year financial results.
“He was not on the guest list and joined a group of guests invited by Woody Allen and his wife, without prior warning,” he said.
A photo in the mass of Epstein investigation files released by the US Justice Department shows the three men at an Hermes workshop outside Paris.
“Someone took the opportunity to take an impromptu picture, which he evidently kept preciously,” Dumas said. “And indeed, he had a bad reputation.”
“Afterwards, he tried to meet with me three times, which I always declined,” he added.
Emails consulted by AFP in the Epstein files, sent by Dumas’s assistant, show he refused several of his invitations.
“Finally, in 2016, he took part in a charity auction and won a lot offered by the house, a course of workshop lessons,” Dumas said.
“When we learned that he was the winner, we refused and compensated the charity with the equivalent amount,” he said.
Dumas also said Hermes refused a request by Epstein to redecorate the interior of his jet.
Source: Insider Paper
