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.
"I can't tell you exactly what we knew about him or not, because I can't recall from 13 years ago, but he had an odious reputation," he said.
Dumas's comments are the latest Epstein revelations that have shaken France following the Justice Department's latest release of Epstein investigation files last month.
On Tuesday, France's foreign minister said he had requested a probe into a French diplomat, Fabrice Aidan, who corresponded with Epstein, and who another envoy said was investigated while at the United Nations over child sex abuse websites.
Former French culture minister Jack Lang meanwhile resigned from his position as the head of a top cultural body, the Arab World Institute, after his name appeared in the statutes of an offshore company Epstein founded in 2016.
Lang's daughter Caroline, who allegedly owned half the shares in the company, has resigned from two positions.
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