Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite and heiress who was Jeffrey Epstein's friend and confidante, has been arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire.
Where had she been? What does she know? These are the questions anyone following the case of Epstein, the billionaire financier who died in an apparent suicide in a New York prison cell last year while awaiting charges of sex trafficking, wants answering.
Maxwell, 57, was Epstein’s long-term companion, an ex turned alleged madam who stands accused of supplying him with a steady stream of young girls; even, it is said, participating in abuse. Earlier this year, Annie Farmer - whose testimony helped prevent Epstein's release on bail - claimed that Maxwell coerced her into a massage where she 'groped' her breasts, after she had been flown to Epstein's New Mexico Ranch aged 16. 'I don’t think there was any reason for her to be touching me that way' Farmer said.
According to Sky News, she was most recently traced to the Brazilian riveria with Jean-Luc Brunel, who is also accused of trafficking women for Epstein. This was reported on October 15th, when a former US police officer reported tracing Brunel's phone to the Infinity Blue Resort and Spa in Santa Catarina - and they are believed to be together. In the month since then, however, there has been no word of where the pair are, whether Maxwell has been charged or if she's working with the FBI.
Her last known address was London, where she once owned a town house near Hyde Park, and early last week, tech tycoon Scott Borgerson, 43, was forced to deny reports that she was staying at his seafront home in Massachusetts.
However, Maxwell attorney's are currently trying to block 'hundreds' of names in the Epstein court documents being released to the public. This morning, they requested an extension to argue this case.
At the same time, the Washington Post reports that prosecutors are preparing to file charges against Epstein's prison guards. They are accused of falsifying prison logs that claim they regularly checked on Epstein the night he committed suicide.
It is thought Maxwell may unwittingly have provided the trigger for Epstein to take his own life. Hours before his death on 10 August, a 2,000-page stash of legal documents was made public, disclosing details of abuse said to have been perpetrated on teenagers in mansions across three US states and on his private Caribbean island. The revelations appear to have dashed whatever hope Epstein, 66, may have had of resisting the charges against him. They were released as a direct result of Maxwell's denial of claims by one of his accusers, Virginia Giuffre, that she recruited her to service Epstein’s desires.
Giuffre, who also alleges Maxwell coerced her into ‘sexual relations’ with Prince Andrew (a claim Buckingham Palace has strongly rejected), sued Maxwell for defamation. The case was settled in private two years ago, but following applications from the media, paperwork was unsealed in a New York court on 9 August. Epstein was found dead a few miles away, at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correction Center, the following morning.
The unsealed judgment revealed ‘multiple witnesses’ had testified that Maxwell was responsible for ‘recruiting, maintaining, harbouring and trafficking girls for Epstein’, had taken ‘numerous sexually explicit photographs of underage girls involved in sexual activities’ and participated in three-way sex with him and teenage girls. In her deposition, Giuffre said, ‘My whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy. Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.’
Following Epstein’s death, at least one accuser is suing Maxwell personally. Jennifer Araoz accuses her and others of ‘conspiring to make possible and otherwise facilitate sexual abuse and rape’. ‘They robbed me of my youth, my identity, my innocence, my self-worth,’ Araoz has said. ‘For too long, they escaped accountability. I intend to change that.’
The US authorities have confirmed that investigations into Epstein’s alleged accomplices will continue, despite his death. Attorney General William Barr said, ‘Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. The victims deserve justice and they’ll get it.' Maxwell herself has always denied allegations of abuse; her lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
It is not the first time Maxwell has been caught up in controversy surrounding the death of a man in her life. Her father was the late Robert Maxwell, the media tycoon. Maxwell was his ninth child, but hers was the only photograph in his penthouse office. She was, according to writer Wendy Leigh, who knew Robert Maxwell, ‘always daddy’s girl and thought that she was entitled to mingle only with the best. She effortlessly charmed her way to the top’. Her father is said to have hoped she might marry John F Kennedy Jr.
Then, in 1999, Robert Maxwell fell to his death from the yacht he had named after Maxwell. Soon afterwards, it emerged he had stolen billions from his companies, raiding the pension scheme of his flagship Daily Mirror newspaper. Maxwell escaped the scandal by moving to the US where, less than a year later, she met Epstein. The couple became a fixture in New York high society, the well-connected Maxwell introducing Epstein to her famous friends, including Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, JFK Jr and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Her attitude to the seemingly endless trail of young girls procured for Epstein was summed up by a comment she once made to a friend, who revealed it to Vanity Fair. ‘They’re nothing, these girls. They are trash.’ Now, it seems, the trash are biting back.
READ MORE
All The Women Who Have Accused Donald Trump Of Sexual Assault
Meet The Ugandan Women Who Found Friendship And Escaped Sex Trafficking Together