hislaine Maxwell was once a “sophisticated” and “very impressive” British socialite until her affiliation with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein led to her arrest for sex trafficking.
The daughter of disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell, the 60-year-old tried to start a new life in Manhattan after his death in 1991 and met Epstein the following year.
Mr Maxwell was found drowned after apparently falling from his yacht – named Lady Ghislaine – off the coast of Tenerife.
His sons, Ian and Kevin Maxwell, who served on the board of the Maxwell Communication Corporation, were investigated after their father’s death for an alleged conspiracy to defraud the company’s pension fund. Both were acquitted of fraud in 1996.
Despite attempts by Maxwell’s counsel to distance her from Epstein, a large number of photos of the couple in various exotic locations surfaced during her trial — depicting her massaging the convicted sex offender’s feet, suggesting a close relationship. .
Her trial in a federal court in New York’s Southern District heard the couple boast of being friends with high-profile figures, including former US President Donald Trump.
With the fortune he made from his financial dealings, Epstein and Maxwell lived a life of luxury jets around the world and inhabited the millionaire’s many properties: including a mansion in Manhattan, his mansion in Palm Beach, a ranch in New Mexico and its private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Maxwell’s friends also included royalties. She had known the Duke of York since her college days and introduced Andrew to her former partner, Epstein.
In a Newsnight interview, Andrew admitted to organizing a shooting weekend for the defendant at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate.
In 2000, he was pictured in Thailand attending a “whore and pimp” party with Maxwell.
But a claim that he had sex with Virginia Roberts three times — reportedly once at Maxwell’s Belgravia home — ultimately damaged his reputation.
Maxwell was seen in the background of a photo where Andrew apparently had his arm around the waist of Mrs. Roberts, aka Virginia Giuffre.
The Duke categorically denies having any sexual contact or relationship with Mrs Roberts.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting and seizing a minor for prostitution, and Maxwell was arrested July 3 last year in New Hampshire.
Her trial heard how she summoned a 14-year-old girl to an orgy, groped another teen, and put a schoolgirl outfit in front of another accuser for a sexualized massage with Epstein because she “thought it would be fun.”
Epstein committed suicide in a federal detention center in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In her opening statement to the jury, Lara Pomerantz, assistant US attorney, said of Maxwell: “She preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them, and served them up to be sexually assaulted.
“The defendant was smuggling children for sex. That is what this trial is about.”
Her defense counsel, Bobbi Sternheim, who defended the socialite, told the jury: “The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for things Jeffrey Epstein has done.
“But she’s not Jeffrey Epstein.”
Maxwell denied all charges but was ultimately convicted by a jury on five out of six counts just after Christmas and her 60th birthday.
She will be convicted on Tuesday.