Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘pimp’ Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘biggest mistake’

Ghislaine Maxwell’s “biggest mistake” was luring Prince Andrew's accuser into her and Jeffrey Epstein’s depraved world, according to a friend.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s “biggest mistake” was luring Prince Andrew's accuser into her and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s depraved world, according to a friend.

The 57-year-old, accused of being Epstein's "pimp", is said to “not give a s**t” about Virginia Roberts-Giuffre and the scores of other girls that Epstein abused, The Sun reports.

According to a family friend, Maxwell feared that the legal action launched by Ms Roberts-Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, would expose her network of powerful friends which she spent years building and protecting.

Laura Goldman, 61, a former New York City stockbroker who mixed in the same social circles as Maxwell, said the alleged madam was “undoubtedly” the brains behind Epstein’s predatory schemes as she was much more intelligent, well connected and charming that he was.

“Ghislaine was hysterical about the defamation suit Virginia Roberts launched,” she said.

“That suit made her nutso. She saw that as a threat to her whole network of famous friends.

“Ghislaine said her ‘biggest mistake’ was ever involving Virginia. Ghislaine doesn’t give a s**t about the girls like Virginia who suffered, she is more worried about exposing her network.”

Ghislaine Maxwell is Jeffrey Epstein’s ex and has been accused of acting as one of his key procurers. But no one knows where she is. Picture: Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images/AFP

Ms Goldman said she last saw Maxwell about 10 years ago, but still shares mutual friends with her – and remains friends with the socialite's sister Isabel Maxwell.

She said she attended many events with Epstein and Maxwell in the 1990s and even attended one of the billionaire’s infamous parties at his home in Florida – which was packed with “young girls”.

“I got invited to attend by a male friend who was going," Ms Goldman recalled.

"It was back in the ‘90s. I got there and there were lots of married men without their wives and young girls all over.

“Prince Andrew wasn’t there. I didn’t think the girls were underage but they probably were in retrospect.

“Jeffrey’s house in New York was very lavish but his Florida place wasn’t. It was away from the beach and at the end of a road.

“It was not a party for a woman to be a guest at and I was uncomfortable. Because of that I didn’t want to go to any of his New York events because I knew there was just something wrong about it.

“After Jeffrey was arrested the first time back in 2008 I didn’t want any more to do with either him or Ghislaine after that.”

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Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, aged 17 at Ghislaine Maxwell's townhouse in London.

Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. Picture: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images

Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in prison earlier this year. Picture: New York State Sex Offender Registry/AP

Ms Goldman also criticised Prince Andrew – who has always denied Ms Roberts-Giuffre’s claims to have had sex with the royal when she was 17 or knowledge of Epstein's activities – for not realising what the scores of young girls at Epstein’s events were really there for.

She said: “I think Prince Andrew is a dolt. He lives in a different world and may well have thought those girls were servants but obviously, they weren’t.

“He is part of a world of people who think they are entitled to get whatever they want. It’s a different reality to most people.

"They believe it’s all coming to them and the world owes it to them.”

Ms Goldman also told of her surprise when Maxwell was pictured at an In-N-Out burger restaurant in Los Angeles in July.

Maxwell is believed to have been photographed by her lawyer, Leah Saffian, whose dog appeared to be with the socialite – and whose metadata was linked to the picture.

Ms Saffian has kept a low profile since the allegations but The Sun pictured her ironically going through the drive-through of her local In-N-Out burger joint in Los Angeles this weekend.

“Ghislaine does not eat at In-N-Out. She is obsessed with her figure. She always used to make a very offensive joke that she was on a ‘Holocaust diet," Ms Goldman revealed.

“I couldn’t believe she would allow the first picture of her for however long to be at a fast food restaurant. I was shocked.

“I bet it was the first time she had ever been there. She’s very, very vain.”

It comes after Ms Goldman said Maxwell was "sex obsessed" and has managed to find herself a new boyfriend.

Ghislaine Maxwell's Belgravia property in London where the infamous photo was taken of Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, which shows Maxwell standing beside them. Picture: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Telling how she became close to the Maxwell family, Ms Goldman said: “My parents are Holocaust survivors and Isabel does a great deal of work talking about the Holocaust.

“The Maxwells lost something like 300 members of their family in the Holocaust and as a family they have done a lot for the state of Israel.

“I was always active in the Jewish community scene so that’s how I got to know Isabel. I’ve travelled with her to Israel and people would literally stand up when she walked into a room, her family commands respect.

“I didn’t get to know Isabel’s twin sister Christine who live in Dallas but I knew of her because she is a Holocaust academic, too,” she said.

“I got to know Jeffrey through academic circles at first. He had links to universities I was also associated with.

“Back then in the 1990s there were all kinds of parties in New York and there used to be a joke in the early days that Ghislaine would show up to the opening of an envelope.

“She would literally be at every event, networking. That was her job. No-one actually knew what she did for a living. Going to parties and meeting people was her thing. She was everywhere.

“She always wore nice and expensive clothes. Then she started to be with Jeffrey at events. I think she was attracted to him for all sorts of reasons,” Ms Goldman added.

“For a start he was a very domineering character, like her father Robert. And she wanted money. The kind she was used to before her father died. I myself wasn’t really her cup of tea, I wasn’t fancy enough."

Maxwell has denied any wrongdoing.

This article originally appeared in The Sun and was republished here with permission.