Ghislaine Maxwell is believed to have lived off of money Jeffrey Epstein gave her over the course of their seedy 30-year partnership which started as a romance and ended in them both allegedly sexually abusing underage girls who Maxwell is accused of trafficking.
Maxwell, 58,is currently in custody awaiting her next court appearance – which will be in New York – on charges of child sex trafficking and perjury. If convicted, she faces 35 years behind bars.
She was arrested on Thursday in a $1million property in New Hampshire which she paid for in cash in December using the name of a company she formed a month earlier to try to avoid detection.
It has since emerged in court documents that she has 15 bank accounts around the world which she regularly shifts money between.
Between 2007 an 2011, Epstein – who killed himself in prison last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – gave her at least $20million.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club in 1995. Accusers say they had already set up their grooming system
Why exactly is unclear. She, for a time, was paid to look after his homes and it has been suggested that she also looked after his social calendar.
In 2015, Maxwell used some of the money to buy an Upper East Side home for $16.9million.
She sold the property a year later for $1million less.
The six-bedroom, six-level townhouse is on East 65th Street. It boasts a roof terrace and ground level garden, and spans 6,900 sq ft.
It’s unclear why she sold it so promptly and for less.
At the time she was in the thick of depositions as part of a lawsuit filed against her by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Since then, Ghislaine’s movements are murky.
She was photographed in London last June, around a month before Epstein’s arrest, and at the time she is believed to have still been meeting up with Prince Andrew, her long-time friend.
In 2015, Maxwell bought a six-story townhouse on the Upper East Side. By then, she’d been given at least $20million by Epstein, according to court documents
The home has six bedrooms and spans more than 6,900 sq ft
The roof terrace at Ghislaine’s old mansion on the Upper East Side. She sold the property for $15million in 2016, a year after buying it
By August, she was back in the US. She was last seen at an In-N-Out Burger in L.A., ten days after Epstein killed himself. Prosecutors say that she has been hiding out in New England in at least three locations since then.
The allegations in the indictment that was unsealed yesterday rounds off a remarkable fall from grace for the international socialite.
Jeffrey and Ghislaine at Sandringham in 2000
Epstein and Maxwell met in the early 1990s and it’s believed they were introduced by her father, the late, disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell.
When he died in 1991 by falling from his yacht – Lady Ghislaine – in the Canary Islands, she became closer with Epstein.
It’s unclear when exactly their romance ended but they remained firm friends.
The oldest allegations in the indictment are in 1994, when she allegedly groomed a girl for sex with her and with Epstein when the girl was 14. It is said to have happened in Epstein’s homes in New York and Florida.
In 1995 and 1996, she and Epstein allegedly had sex with a different girl that Ghislaine recruited. That victim – referred to only as Victim 2 – is said to have been abused in New Mexico.
The third victim was allegedly recruited in London and sexually abused by the pair in Maxwell’s home in London.
Civil lawsuits and claims made by other women describe a pattern of abuse by the pair similar to that described in the indictment.
Maxwell would approach the young girls and befriend them, telling them Epstein needed someone to work for him as a masseuse, then bring them to the house where they’d perform sexual massages for him, the women claim.
This was the pattern that led to the 1999 hiring of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in 1999.
In 2000, Roberts, then 17, flew with Jeffrey and Ghislaine to London where they went on night out with Prince Andrew.
Roberts claims it ended in Andrew and her having sex – an allegation he vehemently denies.
Between the early 2000s and 2007, Maxwell traveled with Epstein frequently.
She had a room of her own in his houses, the victims say, and went with him between New York, Florida and New Mexico, where he owned properties.
When Epstein was arrested in 2007 on charges including soliciting prostitutes in Palm Beach County, Maxwell stood by him.
Maxwell was picked up by the FBI and NYPD detectives at 8.30am at the property in Bradford, New Hampshire, she had bought in December 2019 using a limited liability company called Granite LLC to shield her name
In a letter his attorney submitted as a character statement, she said: ‘My experience of Jeffrey, is of a thoughtful, kind, generous loving man, with a keen sense of humor and a ready smile — a man of principles and values and a man of his word.
‘If he made a promise, he would always follow through. In fact, I never saw him break a promise. He is disciplined in business and conscientious. A man always quick to help someone who is down, or to offer an opportunity to someone to pursue a dream or a goal.’
Epstein spent less than a year in prison and during it, he was allowed to go to his office seven days a week.
Maxwell was last seen at an In-N-Out Burger in L.A. last August
When he emerged from custody in 2010, he was welcomed back into the folds of high society, largely thanks to Ghislaine.
Prince Andrew visited New York and Epstein’s famous townhouse that year and was widely criticized for it.
She then appeared sporadically at public events, often with well-heeled crowds.
One of her last appearances was in June last year when she was spotted outside Buckingham Palace, at the Cash & Rocket rally.
In a video taken on that day, she is seen marveling as the Queen’s horses trot past Wellington Arch near Buckingham Palace.
She is understood to have met up with Prince Andrew that day.
She was next seen again on June 9, in Monacho, at a yacht party. After that, she went to ground and only emerged again at the In-N-Out Burger.
Meanwhile, Epstein had been jailed on suspicion of child sex trafficking. He killed himself in August.
Prince Andrew has since spoken out to express regret over his friendship with Epstein, but to insist he never had sex with Roberts Giuffre or any other young girls.
He says he will talk to American prosecutors and that he is waiting for a response from them.
Maxwell is now in county jail in New Hampshire. She is expected to be transferred into custody in New York sometime before Monday.