Ghislaine Maxwell faces questions after Jeffrey Epstein’s death

Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, is accused of trafficking minors.

Ghislaine Maxwell (R) with Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts. Picture: Michael Thomas.

As a young woman she was pushed into the spotlight by the death of her father, the media tycoon Robert Maxwell, and a roiling financial scandal.

Nearly 30 years later, Ghislaine Maxwell has been thrust into the centre of a darker controversy by the apparent suicide of another man to whom her fortunes were tied.

Ms Maxwell, 57, has been described as the sometime girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his cell in Manhattan where he was being held pending a trial for sex trafficking. They met after she moved to New York following her father’s death, in the 1990s. She ushered a succession of the rich and famous into his orbit, including Prince Andrew, managed his households and recruited masseuses.

But in court papers released on Friday, she was said to have acted as a “madam” who trafficked minors.

The death of Epstein, 66, could lead prosecutors in New York into a broader investigation. “Our investigation of the conduct charged in the indictment, which included a conspiracy count, remains ongoing,” said Geoffrey Berman, the US lawyer for the southern district of New York, who had overseen the arrest of Epstein last month and accused him of operating a conspiracy that trafficked dozens of minors for sex.

The financier was denied bail and held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a notorious jail whose past inmates include terrorists and drug lords.

Ghislaine Maxwell (R) with Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and Melania Knauss (later Melania Trump. Picture: Getty Images.

On July 23 he was said to have been found “in medical distress” with bruises around his neck after what appeared to be an attempted suicide. He was put on suicide watch for six days but then returned to a cell in a special unit of the jail, according to the New York Times.

It was said that he had become a target for extortion, as a wealthy paedophile. After this he was given a cell to himself where he lived “like a pig in a sty”, eating meals off the floor, the Daily Beast website reported, citing an anonymous source. However, prisoners in his unit were meant to be checked every 30 minutes, a regime that does not appear to have been followed.

US media reported last night that guards in Epstein’s unit had been overstretched and working extreme overtime shifts on the morning of his death.

MORE: Epstein ‘victims’ vow to pursue estate | Jet-set spiral to Epstein’s disgrace | FBI called in on Epstein death

William Barr, the attorney-general, said he was “appalled” by the “apparent suicide while in federal custody”.

One of Epstein’s lawyers, Marc Fernich, said his client had died because of “overzealous prosecutors” and because of “breathless reporters” who reignited interest in “crimes for which he’d long since paid his debt to society”.

But lawyers for Epstein’s accusers voiced regret that their clients might not get their day in court. Jennifer Araoz, who alleges that Epstein raped her when she was 15, said that she hoped “the authorities will pursue and prosecute his accomplices and enablers”. Sigrid McCawley, an lawyer for Australian woman Virginia Giuffre, who claims to have been one of his victims, told The New YorkTimes that the investigation should now be of those who “participated and facilitated Epstein’s horrifying sex trafficking scheme”.

Epstein was jailed for 18 months in 2008 under the terms of a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida in which he pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting prostitution involving a minor. The deal also promised that authorities would not bring criminal charges “against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff or Nadia Marcinkova”.

When New York prosecutors charged Epstein, Mr Berman, the US lawyer in New York, said the agreement only bound prosecutors in the southern district of Florida.

Ms Kellen was alleged in court papers to have kept lists of girls to recruit as “massage therapists”. She now runs an interior design company.

Ms Marcinkova is said to have been brought to Epstein when she was 15. Several alleged victims claim that she “encouraged and engaged in sexual acts” with young girls. She has since qualified as a commercial pilot.

Neither has been charged with a crime. In court documents both are said to have invoked the fifth amendment when questioned about whether Ms Maxwell worked “as a recruiter of young girls for Jeffrey Epstein”.

Lesley Groff was alleged to have co-ordinated travel arrangements for young girls and to have scheduled massage sessions for Epstein, according to The New YorkTimes. Her lawyer said last night that she had “never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever”.

According to the Miami Herald, Adriana Ross served as one of Epstein’s assistants. The Herald’s investigation of his plea deal was widely credited with causing prosecutors in New York to revive the investigation of the financier.

In court filings after Epstein was arrested last month prosecutors claimed that he had wired $100,000 to a possible co-conspirator shortly after one of the newspaper’s reports was published. Prosecutors said that $250,000 was paid to another possible co-conspirator three days later.

The Times