From a woman of high society and friend of British royalty, to being one of the protagonists of one of the biggest sex trafficking scandals in recent times.
Ghislaine Maxwell, youngest daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell and ex-girlfriend of the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in the United States for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls and for sex trafficking. .
In the framework of his case – his lawyers are appealing the sentence – court documents were recently published that reveal a list of people related to Epstein. Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom and former President Bill Clinton are some of those mentioned.
Following the death of the businessman – who died in his cell at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – Ghislaine Maxwell came into the spotlight.
And although her lawyers have said that she is being used as a “scapegoat” for the magnate's crimes, the evidence against her has been overwhelming.
Here we tell you his story.
what he is acussed?
Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 on suspicion of aiding Epstein's child abuse by recruiting and grooming victims known to be minors.
In December 2021, a New York City jury found her guilty of five of six charges, including the most serious: sex trafficking of a minor.
For this reason, the woman faces 20 years in prison.
Some of the charges date back to between 1994 and 1997, a time when, according to the indictment, she was one of Epstein's closest associates and had an “intimate relationship” with him.
In December 2020, one of the women who declared herself a victim of Epstein told the BBC that Maxwell controlled the women who were in the billionaire's service.
“Ghislaine controlled the girls. She was like the madame,” Sarah Ransome said on the BBC's Panorama programme.
“She was a staple of the sex trafficking operation and would always visit Jeffrey on the island to make sure the girls were doing what they were supposed to be doing,” he testified.
“She knew what Jeffrey liked. With bullying, she helped maintain Jeffrey's standards; he bullied the girls, so it was a joint effort,” he said.
The allegations against Maxwell were first made public in court documents in 2009.
Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of the billionaire who worked as a locker room attendant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where Epstein often went, accused Maxwell of “recruiting” her when she was 15 as a “masseuse” for The financial.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, Epstein allegedly paid minors in exchange for a massage at his residence, which in most cases ended in some type of sexual exchange.
Maxwell then called Giuffre a liar and the young woman filed a defamation lawsuit against her that the parties resolved before reaching trial in 2017.
Giuffre's lawyers indicated that “multiple witnesses” had accused her of “recruiting, maintaining, harboring and trafficking” minors for Epstein.
His relationship with Epstein
Born on Christmas Day 1961 on the outskirts of Paris, Maxwell was educated at Oxford University in England and speaks several languages.
He has British, American and French nationality.
American media point out that from a young age she was a person with numerous contacts in the upper class and that it was she who introduced Epstein to many of her rich and powerful friends, including former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
According to The Washington Post, friends of the couple point out that Maxwell's romantic relationship with Epstein lasted a few years, although she continued working for him some time later.
“She was a person of refined education and tastes and knew how to run a house or a boat and how to serve guests,” according to an acquaintance of both told the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
In a Vanity Fair profile published in 2003, Epstein commented that he did not consider Maxwell an employee but rather his “best friend.”
In court documents, former workers at Epstein's mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, also describe her as the house manager, who supervised the staff and handled finances.
High society heiress
Maxwell is the ninth and last child of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, with whom she had a very close relationship.
In fact, the billionaire put her in charge of his football club, Oxford United, and named his yacht after her: Lady Ghislaine.
It was from that boat that the businessman of Czech origin disappeared off the Canary Islands, Spain, in November 1991.
After finding the body, authorities attributed his death to “accidental drowning.”
Robert Maxwell had managed to build a global publishing empire. But after his death, it emerged that he had taken money from the pension funds of one of his companies to keep his companies afloat.
Shortly after her father's death, Ghislaine Maxwell left the United Kingdom to settle in the United States, where she worked in real estate.
From girlfriend to confidant
It was shortly after that she met Jeffrey Epstein and their relationship evolved over the years: from a romantic partner it is said that she became his assistant and confidant.
According to some media, Epstein bought him a house in Manhattan for US$5 million and frequently accompanied him on his private jet on trips around the world.
After her ex-boyfriend faced legal proceedings for underage prostitution in 2008, she began to distance herself from him.
Maxwell founded an NGO, the TerraMar Project, dedicated to preserving the oceans and was invited to give a talk and speak at the United Nations on the topic.
But in recent years, before her arrest, little was known about her.
He is believed to have left the United States and sold his Manhattan chalet in 2016.
She kept a low profile until she was arrested in July 2020 at
her New Hampshire mansion and imprisoned in New York.
After his conviction in June 2022, Maxwell stated: “The biggest regret of my life is meeting Jeffrey Epstein.”
He also lamented the pain the victims experienced, adding, “I hope that my conviction, along with my harsh incarceration, helps them gain closure.”
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cqq14x5l0kro, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-01-05 14:37:04
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