Three months before FBI agents arrested Jeffrey Epstein at a private New Jersey airport for his alleged role in a global child trafficking ring, his old pal and business partner Jean Luc Brunel was busy scouring Brazil for girls who could make him even richer.

Brunel, 72, an agent who in the 1980s discovered some of the biggest names in modeling — Christy Turlington and Angie Everhardt — was on a month-long scouting jaunt, crisscrossing the South American nation for the next big thing.

Through big cities and dusty frontier towns, Brunel stopped at more than 20 agencies and interviewed hundreds of girls, a Brazilian model agent recalled to The Post.

“He spent more than two hours with us,” said the agent, who owns a talent firm. “I brought my wife and 7-year-old daughter to the meeting. I knew nothing about what he had been accused of doing. I still don’t quite believe it.”

Brunel’s been implicated in court filings of procuring girls for his old American chum, who was indicted on charges of sexually abusing dozens of girls before his suicide in a Manhattan federal lockup on Aug. 10.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s longtime accusers, alleged in court papers that Brunel “farmed out” modeling hopefuls to Epstein and other prominent men for sex.

Giuffre also claimed that she was forced to have sex with Brunel at luxury properties belonging to Epstein, who owned homes in Palm Beach, Manhattan, Paris, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands.

Activist group Innocence en Danger, which has been urging that more be done to probe potential abuses in France, has said it had received statements from 10 witnesses alleging sexual abuse involving Epstein and his cohorts.

France’s high court on Friday announced that it was conducting a “preliminary investigation” into “l’affaire Epstein” after an exchange of information with its US counterparts.

“The investigations will focus on potential crimes committed against French victims on national territory and abroad, as well as on suspects who are French citizens,” said Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz.

And that means attention on Brunel is intensifying.

The modeling tycoon is one of the first people French investigators are expected to question.

Brunel — who has not been charged with a crime — has vigorously denied all allegations against him in the past, and model world insiders told The Post he continues to work as an agent and scout for MC2, which once counted Epstein as an investor.

“Oh, yeah. That guy is always scouting for girls,” said Jarl Ale de Basseville, a Paris-based fashion photographer who has known Brunel since the 1990s. “But it’s a fine line between modeling and prostitution, and the problem with guys like him is that they think they own the girls.”

Another longtime Brunel associate said, “He likes fresh flesh, that’s for sure.”

Jean Luc Brunel was born into a wealthy family in Paris two years after the end of the Second World War. His father was a successful realtor who amassed a sizable fortune.

Brunel’s brother, Arnaud Brunel, is a businessman who is regularly featured in society columns.

“Jean Luc is charismatic,” said the associate. “But there are two sides to him and they always tried to destroy each other.”

Friends and business associates described him as a brilliant model scout who had a sharp eye for talent, and built up his first venture, Karin Models — a Paris-based company he joined in the 1970s — into one of the most prestigious talent agencies in the world.

But people also described him as a mean-spirited, lecherous rogue who allegedly took advantage of vulnerable young women. In French modeling circles, he is known as “Jean Cul” or Jean the Ass.

The flamboyant Frenchman — said to be colorblind — would often show up at industry soirees with his models and celebrities, looking like he was high on cocaine and wearing turquoise-colored pants and a brightly colored pashmina shawl, eyewitnesses told The Post.

“He walked in surrounded by six or seven blond Swedish models who towered over him,” the associate said.

With homes in Paris, New York and Miami, Brunel rarely traveled with a suitcase, the associate said.

“He would just buy three of everything, so he had it in each of his homes,” the associate said.

By 1996, Karin Models had expanded its business operations to an office in New York, public records show.

It opened another location in Miami’s trendy South Beach neighborhood in 2003, and by 2011, the company changed its name to MC2, Florida public records show.

Brunel began to distance himself from the day-to-day operations of the firm, and spent much of his time scouting out new talent.

He also befriended Epstein. Flight logs from Epstein’s private jet show that Brunel flew on the so-called “Lolita Express” more than 20 times between 1998 and 2005.

In Paris, Epstein owned seven apartments on the Avenue Foch, a short walk from Brunel’s luxury flat on Avenue Hoche.

“I remember that people were warning him about Epstein,” the associate said. “Everyone was hearing that this guy was not on the level. They told him to drop this guy, that he was bad news. Jean Luc didn’t listen to them.”

But a break in their relationship occurred in 2015, when Brunel and MC2 sued Epstein, claiming that the “bad publicity generated by criminal charges” against Epstein had been “bad for business.”

Since Epstein’s arrest, Brunel has been spotted once at a Paris party. Brunel told the Brazilian model agent that he now divides his time between Miami and Thailand.