Ghislaine Maxwell tries to stake a claim to Jeffrey Epstein’s $636m estate

Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘madam’ Ghislaine Maxwell is trying to get cash from the dead child molester’s estate to pay off her legal fees.

Maxwell has filed paperwork in the US Virgin Islands for a piece of the disgraced financier’s estimated $636 million estate, because, she says, he promised to pay for her lawyers.

The 58-year-old British socialite — who has been in hiding for months —made the claim on Friday, five days before Wednesday’s deadline for such a claim, according to the New York Times. 

Maxwell wants the money to pay for legal expenses for suits from women who say she procured them to give sexual services to Epstein while they were still teenagers.

In her suit, Maxwell describes herself as a longtime employee who had ‘a legal and special relationship’ with Epstein, who was found dead in his cell in New York last August.

Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘madam’ Ghislaine Maxwell is trying to get cash from the dead child molester’s estate to pay off her legal fees. The 58-year-old British socialite, who has been in hiding for months, made the claim on Friday, five days before Wednesday’s deadline. Maxwell has fallen off the grid but a photo emerged of her at In-N-Out last year (pictured)

In her suit, Maxwell describes herself as a longtime employee who had 'a legal and special relationship' with Epstein, who was found dead in his cell in New York last August

In her suit, Maxwell describes herself as a longtime employee who had ‘a legal and special relationship’ with Epstein, who was found dead in his cell in New York last August

She says she ‘incurred significant legal fees, personal security costs and other expenses due to her work for several of Epstein’s businesses between 1999 and 2006.

She said she managed Epstein’s homes in the Virgin Islands, New York, Paris, Florida and New Mexico. The suit says she also worked for his C.O.U.Q. Foundation.

Maxwell also claims that before his death he had told her he would pay all her legal fees in lawsuits where she was named as a defendant.

She says she sent Epstein’s estate a letter last November demanding indemnification of those costs, saying Epstein had put it in writing that he wanted to pay her costs.

She says the estate has so far not honored that commitment.

The Times says the lawsuit was filed by the law firm Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, which has an office in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

The lawsuit did not say where Maxwell is now living.

Last month a judge allowed a lawsuit against her to be filed by email because her accusers had been unable to track her down. 

Judge Debra Freeman took the rare step in a federal court in Manhattan.

She says she 'incurred significant legal fees, personal security costs and other expenses due to her work for several of Epstein's businesses between 1999 and 2006. She said she managed Epstein's homes in the Virgin Islands, New York, Paris, Florida and New Mexico (pictured). The suit says she also worked for his C.O.U.Q. Foundation

She says she ‘incurred significant legal fees, personal security costs and other expenses due to her work for several of Epstein’s businesses between 1999 and 2006. She said she managed Epstein’s homes in the Virgin Islands, New York, Paris, Florida and New Mexico (pictured). The suit says she also worked for his C.O.U.Q. Foundation

Maxwell also claims that before his death he had told her he would pay all her legal fees in lawsuits where she was named as a defendant. She says she sent Epstein's estate a letter last November demanding indemnification of those costs, saying Epstein had put it in writing that he wanted to pay her costs. Pictured: Epstein's Little St. James island

Maxwell also claims that before his death he had told her he would pay all her legal fees in lawsuits where she was named as a defendant. She says she sent Epstein’s estate a letter last November demanding indemnification of those costs, saying Epstein had put it in writing that he wanted to pay her costs. Pictured: Epstein’s Little St. James island 

Annie Farmer, 40, has accused the former socialite of trafficking her from Arizona to Epstein’s Zorro Ranch south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1996, where she claims Maxwell sexually assaulted her.

Freeman ordered Maxwell to be served by email and through attorneys representing her in the lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, 36, one of the most prominent accusers of Epstein.

Maxwell was said by Farmer’s lawyers to be actively participating Giuffre’s defamation case in the same court.

Farmer’s lawyers said they didn’t think Maxwell should be able to ‘dodge the law’.

Judge Freeman said that Farmer had ‘attempted to locate and personally serve Maxwell to no avail.

‘Her counsel has conducted extensive public records searches and located various addresses for Maxwell,’ she said.

The judge added that Farmer had ‘adequately demonstrated that personal service would be impracticable’.

Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell, has fallen off the grid since Epstein was found dead in his jail cell aged 66 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

A judge ordered Maxwell to be served by email and through attorneys representing her in the lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, 36, one of the most prominent accusers of Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre has claimed she was made to sleep with Prince Andrew, which he has denied

A judge ordered Maxwell to be served by email and through attorneys representing her in the lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, 36, one of the most prominent accusers of Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre has claimed she was made to sleep with Prince Andrew, which he has denied 

His death was ruled a suicide but this has been disputed by his lawyers, who say he may have been murdered.

DailyMail.com revealed last August that Maxwell was living with a new boyfriend, tech CEO Scott Borgenson in a $3 million oceanfront mansion in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. 

She is also reported to have been seen in places as far apart as Brazil and Israel. But only picture of her has appeared online. That claimed she was reading a book at an In-N-Out Burger in southern California.

Borgenson was spotted walking Maxwell’s dog near his office in Boston.

Maxwell, who was described as the ‘madam of the house’ by a former housekeeper at Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, strenuously denied any wrongdoing after the former Wall Street whiz’s death.

Maxwell and Epstein dated for several years. She facilitated Epstein’s entry to the rarefied worlds of royalty, politics and celebrity, cementing his friendships with Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Woody Allen among others.

DailyMail.com reported last August that she was living with a new boyfriend, tech CEO Scott Borgenson in a $3m mansion in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Borgenson was spotted walking Maxwell's dog near his office in Boston (pictured)

DailyMail.com reported last August that she was living with a new boyfriend, tech CEO Scott Borgenson in a $3m mansion in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Borgenson was spotted walking Maxwell’s dog near his office in Boston (pictured) 

Pictured: The Manchester-by-the-Sea mansion that Maxwell had been reportedly staying at, which is owned by Borgenson

Pictured: The Manchester-by-the-Sea mansion that Maxwell had been reportedly staying at, which is owned by Borgenson

She is the youngest child of Robert Maxwell, who fell to his death from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, in 1991. After he died it was discovered he had embezzled nearly half a billion British pounds from his companies’ pension funds.

She attended the boarding school Marlborough College in Wiltshire, England, a favorite of the British elite, and went on to study at Oxford University.

In her twenties, she was a well-known face on London’s social scene and founded the Kit Kat Club, an alternative to the old-school-tie network for high-powered women.

She worked for her father’s newspaper, The European, and as the director of Oxford United soccer club when her father was owner.

Vilified in the UK, where Robert Maxwell’s victims were angered by the lavish lifestyle his family had enjoyed at their expense, Ghislaine relocated to New York, where she took up residence in a small apartment, and set about re-inventing herself.

In the early nineties, she took up with Epstein, a Gatsby-like financial whiz, who reportedly only managed the money of clients who could invest $1 billion. 

His sole publicly named client was Les Wexner, the former owner of L Brands which includes Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.

Maxwell operated as part-girlfriend, part-employee, orchestrating Epstein’s social life. Epstein supported her and helped her remain in the social position she had grown accustomed to from her upbringing.

‘Ghislaine floated in and out of the house with the keys, and even though Jeffrey told me they didn’t have a sexual relationship, she’d drop under her breath that she was sleeping in his bed from time to time’ one Epstein ex-girlfriend told Vanity Fair.

The pair partied with Donald and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago and threw lavish dinners at Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse, attended by celebrities including Woody Allen, Katie Couric, Chelsea Handler, David Blaine and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

In the early nineties, she took up with Epstein, a Gatsby-like financial whiz, who reportedly only managed the money of clients who could invest $1 billion. His sole publicly named client was Les Wexner, the former owner of L Brands

In the early nineties, she took up with Epstein, a Gatsby-like financial whiz, who reportedly only managed the money of clients who could invest $1 billion. His sole publicly named client was Les Wexner, the former owner of L Brands

The pair partied with Donald and Melania Trump (pictured together in 2000) and threw lavish dinners at Epstein's Upper East Side townhouse, attended by celebrities including Woody Allen, Katie Couric, Chelsea Handler, David Blaine and Google co-founder Sergey Brin

The pair partied with Donald and Melania Trump (pictured together in 2000) and threw lavish dinners at Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse, attended by celebrities including Woody Allen, Katie Couric, Chelsea Handler, David Blaine and Google co-founder Sergey Brin 

The jet-setting financier also hobnobbed with Trump allies Wilbur Ross, Steve Mnuchin and Rudy Giuliani at a Hamptons film screening in 2010, just two months after his release from prison in Florida.

In 2008, Epstein was offered a secret deal to avoid federal prosecution and pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting an underage girl for sex.

As part of that deal, federal prosecutors agreed not to charge ‘any potential co-conspirators of Epstein.’

He served 13 months in county jail in Palm Beach, Florida and registered as a sex offender. During his sentence, he was allowed to work from his office most days.

The deal was cut by Alex Acosta, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He resigned from Trump’s cabinet where he was Secretary of Labor in the fallout from the Epstein case.

On July 6 last year, FBI investigators broke down the doors of Epstein’s $77 million New York home after he was arrested on his private jet at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey following a flight from Paris.

A search of Epstein’s home turned up hundreds of pictures of nude women, some of them minors, along with cash, diamonds, valuable art and an expired Austrian passport with Epstein’s face but someone else’s name, claiming Saudi Arabia as place of residence, according Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Maxwell is alleged to be one of the main players in a network of recruiters and enablers who provided Epstein with those underage girls to sexually abuse.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk