Compensation fund for Jeffrey Epstein victims halts payments

A compensation fund established to help victims of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has run into money problems.

A compensation fund set up to help women who were sexually abused by billionaire paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has reportedly halted payments.

The Epstein Victims Compensation Fund, which to date has received more than 150 million claims and has paid out more than $A65 million, has paused payments due to cash flow uncertainty, NBC News reports.

The Fund’s administrator, Jordana Feldman, said Epstein’s estate had advised that it did not have enough money to fulfil the latest replenishment request and that it did not know when the funds would be available.

“Although I sincerely regret having to take this action, I have concluded that it is necessary to protect the interests of eligible claimants who have not yet resolved their claims through the program,” Feldman said in a statement, according to NBC News.

“Issuing a compensation offer that cannot be timely and fully funded and paid, consistent with the way the Program has operated to date, would compromise claimants’ interests and the guiding principles of the Program.”

Despite the setback, Feldman said the program continued to accept claims and meet with victims.

PRESSURE ON PRINCE ANDREW IN EPSTEIN CASE

Ghislaine Maxwell directed a room of girls to “kiss, dance and touch one another in a sexual way”, bombshell court papers claim.

The unsealed documents also allege that Maxwell, who is in jail awaiting trial for her role in the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking case, tarnished the reputation of Prince Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, painting her as a drug addict

Ms Giuffre is an Australian resident and claimed that Maxwell forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew, a claim the royal has strenuously denied.

But Prince Andrew is mentioned repeatedly in the newly unsealed court filings, with one lawyer claiming Jeffrey Epstein wanted Virginia Roberts to have sex with the royal, according to the Daily Mail.

The Duke of York, 60, is mentioned in evidence given by Andrew Figueroa, the ex-boyfriend of Ms Giuffre, who claims she was ordered to have sex with Prince Andrew three times at Epstein and Maxwell’s behest when she was 17.

In interviews, Prince Andrew has strenuously denied the allegations, and said he does not remember ever meeting Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

He also denies being aware of any wrongdoing during his friendship with Epstein.

Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell are pictured inside the London Mews home of Ghislaine Maxwell (R). Picture: Screengrab / Channel 9 / 60 Minutes

The court documents also reveal that Maxwell claimed she could not remember a trip to London where Giuffre allegedly slept with Prince Andrew.

Andrew has yet to talk to the FBI about Maxwell’s case despite his promise to cooperate with authorities.

Maxwell has had her sex secrets laid bare after 112 court documents running to thousands of pages were released by a US judge.

They stem from a lawsuit between the socialite and alleged Epstein sex slave Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who says she was forced to sleep with the Duke of York three times as a teenager – which he denies.

Disgraced socialite and heiress Ghislaine Maxwell has seen hundreds of lurid documents unsealed in court, although she denies all charges. Picture: Supplied

LURID DETAILS IN COURT DOCS

The shocking court documents that have been unsealed include vivid testimony that Maxwell and Epstein had group sex sessions with strap-ons and dildos.

A former employee claimed they witnessed Maxwell force girls into an orgy, according to the court papers.

They also repeat a previous claim that Maxwell confiscated a 15-year-old girl’s passport to blackmail her into having sex with Epstein.

One document reads: “One witness [redacted] was in tears, as he recounted [Maxwell] bringing a 15-year-old girl into his employer’s home who, in utmost distress, told him that [Maxwell] stole the young girl’s passport and tried to make her have sex with Epstein and then threatened her.

“[Redacted witness name] also testified that he watched Maxwell direct a room full of underage girls to kiss, dance, and touch one another in a sexual way for [Maxwell] and Epstein to watch.

Smeared reputation: Virginia Roberts Giuffre has had her teenage past dragged up by Ghislaine Maxwell in an attempt to discredit her. Picture: CBS

“Another witness (redacted) testified that [Maxwell] recruited her from her school campus to have sex with Epstein with lies about being her personal assistant.”

The court documents also claim that Maxwell tried to smear the reputation of Giuffre, now 36, by alleging that she had an “opioid addiction” and that she had previously “cried rape” as a teenager.

Maxwell, 59, is said to have branded Giuffre a “professional victim” and “sexually permissive” pointing to the history of the mother of three from when she was a teenager.

The British-American heiress tried to get the charges against her that she procured girls for Epstein’s sex trafficking ring dropped, claiming she was protected by Epstein’s ‘sweetheart’ non-prosecution deal of 2007.

Epstein hanged himself in jail in New York in 2019.

Originally published as Compensation fund for Jeffrey Epstein victims halts payments