With Jeffrey Epstein dead, the pressure now falls on his alleged co-conspirators
Jeffrey Epstein will never be brought to justice, but that doesn’t mean the investigation into his horrifying sex trafficking ring is over.
Jeffrey Epstein will never be brought to justice, but his death does not mean the investigation into his criminal conspiracy is over.
The billionaire financier was accused of orchestrating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14.
Yesterday, as the world reeled from the news that he had killed himself inside one of America’s most secure prisons, prosecutors from the Southern District of New York issued a subdued but significant statement.
“Today’s events are disturbing, and we are deeply aware of their potential to present yet another hurdle to giving Epstein’s many victims their day in court,” said Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
“To those brave young women who have already come forward and to the many others who have yet to do so, let me reiterate that we remain committed to standing for you, and our investigation of the conduct charged in the indictment — which included a conspiracy count — remains ongoing.”
He urged any other victims, or anyone with information related to the case, to contact the FBI.
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Mr Berman’s statement explicitly highlighted the conspiracy charge against Epstein, which is a clear signal of prosecutors’ intentions.
A conspiracy, by definition, involves multiple people. With Epstein himself dead, and his accusers desperate for someone to be held accountable, the focus will now turn to his alleged co-conspirators.
One of the targets is likely to be the woman Epstein’s victims have accused of facilitating his crimes — British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ms Maxwell has never been arrested or charged, and has denied all the allegations made against her.
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Ms Maxwell, 57, is the daughter of media baron Robert Maxwell, whose own mysterious death dominated headlines decades ago.
Her privileged social circle has included figures like Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and, since the early 1990s, Epstein.
The pair are believed to have dated briefly before settling into a close friendship, the true nature of which was frequently fodder for speculation in gossip columns.
“It’s a mysterious relationship that they have. In one way they are soulmates, yet they are hardly companions anymore. It’s a nice conventional relationship, where they serve each other’s purposes,” society journalist David Columbia once told New York Magazine.
Investment banker Euan Rellie, who attended dinner parties hosted by the pair, said Ms Maxwell “seemed to be half ex-girlfriend, half employee, half best friend, and fixer”.
Epstein’s accusers speak of his partnership with Ms Maxwell in more sinister terms.
She has previously been described in court documents as Epstein’s “madam” and his “procurer of underage girls”.
In 2017, a legal case filed by Epstein victim Sarah Ransome described Ms Maxwell as his “highest ranking employee”, saying she managed his sex life, recruited young girls and helped conceal the activity from law enforcement.
Ms Ransome alleged Ms Maxwell and Epstein had threatened to hurt her and ruin her career if she refused to have sex with their associates.
That legal case has since been withdrawn for reasons that were not made public.
But on Friday — the day before Epstein’s death — court documents were unsealed from a different lawsuit in 2015. Those documents outline, in disturbing new detail, Ms Maxwell’s alleged role in Epstein’s scheme.
In a deposition, Epstein accuser Virginia Guiffre alleged Ms Maxwell approached her at her place of work — the Mar-a-Lago spa — in 2000, and recruited her to supposedly be a masseuse. Ms Guiffre was 16 at the time.
“We can train you. We can get you educated. You know, we can help you along the way if you pass the interview. If the guy likes you, then you know, it will work out for you. You’ll travel. You’ll make good money. You’ll be educated, and you’ll finally get accredited one day,” Ms Maxwell told her, according to the court documents.
In her own deposition, Ms Maxwell conceded her job involved hiring “all sorts of people” to work in Epstein’s six homes, but rejected any suggestion of misconduct.
“A very small part of my job was, from time to time, to find adult professional massage therapists for Jeffrey. As far as I’m concerned, everyone who came to his house was an adult professional person,” she said.
Ms Guiffre told a very different story.
She alleged in court documents that the first time she met Epstein, Ms Maxwell instructed her to “take off my clothes and to give oral sex” to him.
She was later forced to engage in sex acts with a number of people.
Ms Guiffre identified Prince Andrew, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and former US senator George Mitchell as three of those men.
“My whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine and Jeffrey happy,” she said.
A photo that has been in the public sphere for some time shows Prince Andrew with his arm around Ms Guiffre, and Ms Maxwell standing alongside them. It was taken at Ms Maxwell’s London residence.
Buckingham Palace has called the allegations against Prince Andrew “categorically untrue”. None of the three men Ms Guiffre identified have been charged with a crime.
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In her deposition, Ms Guiffre accused Ms Maxwell of not only facilitating the sexual abuse, but participating in it.
“It is your contention that Ghislaine Maxwell had sex with underage girls virtually every day when (you were) around her, correct?” she was asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
She also said Ms Maxwell used her to recruit another victim into the sex ring, by giving her plane tickets to Thailand and instructing her to bring a specific girl back to the United States for Epstein.
The court papers include a corroborating story from another woman. Johanna Sjoberg, who was a university student when Ms Maxwell recruited her, claimed Ms Maxwell’s main role was to provide Epstein with young girls at least three times a day.
“He explained to me that, in his opinion, he needed to have three orgasms a day. It was biological, like eating,” Ms Sjoberg said of Epstein.
There is also testimony from a man called Rinaldo Rizzo, who worked as the house manager for one of Ms Maxwell’s close friends.
Mr Rizzo said Ms Maxwell once brought a 15-year-old girl into the house. The “distraught” girl told him Ms Maxwell had tried to force her to have sex with Epstein on his private island, and had confiscated her passport to trap her there.
Ms Guiffre and Ms Maxwell settled the defamation case out of court, and thousands of pages of documents containing the details above were sealed — until last Friday.
Epstein died less than 24 hours later.
As we said before, Ms Maxwell has not been arrested or charged, and has consistently denied all accusations of wrongdoing. Detectives have never even managed to interview her.
“Virginia is an absolute liar and everything she has said is a lie,” Ms Maxwell said in her deposition.
The Washington Post reports authorities have had trouble locating her.
Ms Maxwell used to own an extravagant, 7000-square-foot (650sq m) townhouse in New York, featuring six bathrooms, eight fireplaces, marble floors, an elevator and a balcony overlooking Manhattan. But she sold that property for $US15 million in 2016.
A year later, her lawyers told a judge she was living in London without a fixed address.
Ms Maxwell may be the most obvious target for investigators now that Epstein is dead, but she will not be alone.
The underage sex ring he orchestrated is believed to have catered to a number of powerful men, whose own crimes could still lead to charges, should prosecutors uncover sufficient evidence.
They have made it clear their investigation will continue — which means Epstein’s victims can still hope for some form of justice.
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