The saga of alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has been defined by a mix of horrific accounts of his underage victims and absurd details about the lives of the financier and his alleged co-conspirators. Court documents filed by prosecutors on Monday suggest that dynamic will continue now that Epstein’s alleged madame Ghislane Maxwell is in custody.
On Monday, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan asked Judge Alison J. Nathan to deny Maxwell bail, asserting that she poses a major flight risk. But the details of her arrest provided on Monday suggest she may not yet be a master of life on the run. On July 2, when FBI agents raided the house where Maxwell was staying, they found a cell phone wrapped in tinfoil, which prosecutors called “a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection.”
After agents broke through the gate to the compound in Bradford, New Hampshire, they announced themselves at the door; upon seeing the law enforcement officers, she fled to another room in the house. (In a further effort to obscure herself, Maxwell recently changed her email address and registered a new phone under the name “G Max.”) Though details from the day of her arrest might not suggest that her father was a suspected spy, her wealth and web of connections bolster the argument that she could flee while out on bail. Prosecutors also stated that Maxwell has three passports and 15 bank accounts in her name, the total balance of which reportedly exceed $20 million. According to the filing, former British military members hired by Maxwell’s brother guarded her at the $1 million New Hampshire estate, purchased in cash via a limited liability corporation.
Maxwell is facing six counts for her alleged involvement in Epstein’s operation: conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sexual acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and two counts of perjury. She is scheduled to appear via video before Judge Nathan on Tuesday to request bail; according to CNN, one of her alleged victims, who is expected to ask Nathan not to grant bail, will also appear. Since July 6, Maxwell has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she has reportedly been given paper clothes to deter a suicide attempt. On Monday, prosecutors wrote that Maxwell’s proposal — that she be held pretrial in home confinement with GPS tracking, on $5 million bail — is worth “nothing.”
