On December 2, 2010, Jeffrey Epstein and Woody Allen met for the first time at a dinner hosted in Epstein's New York residence. That evening, all the guests were celebrities: Prince Andrew, television hosts, an actress... At the center of the gathering, the host, Epstein, was jubilant. Two and a half years earlier, he had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for "soliciting prostitution" and "procuring a minor for prostitution." Since completing his work-release sentence, he had been actively trying to restore his reputation. This dinner was a crucial step in that effort.

Allen's presence was far from random. Epstein himself explicitly asked the publicist organizing the event to invite the renowned director. In the days following the dinner, Epstein reached out to Allen again to follow up on topics they had touched on that December 2010 night. Gradually, the two men grew closer. Epstein gave Woody Allen gifts worth tens of thousands of euros, tapped into his network to help Allen's daughters access their chosen educational paths, and even allowed the director to travel on his private jet. But this generosity was not selfless.

In this video investigation, Le Monde reconstructs nine years of correspondence between the two men, from their first meeting to Epstein's death in 2019. We reveal how the financier and sexual predator orchestrated his meeting with the famous director and how he used it to expand his network, notably in France. Analyzing this relationship also sheds light on the method Epstein used to gain access to the global elite. Find the sources used for this investigation here.