Mystery over the $24m Andrew paid to Giuffre
Giuffre took her own life in April without a will, igniting a legal brawl over assets speculated to be valued at $22m. But her sons have filed a court claim stating the estate is worth only $472,000.
Virginia Giuffre’s family has claimed her estate is worth just over $US312,000 ($472,000), raising questions as to what happened to the $24mAUD ($12mGBP) settlement paid to her by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Giuffre, 41, took her own life at her home in Western Australia in April without a will, igniting a bitter legal fight over assets speculated to be worth as much as $22m.
She received five payouts in relation to Epstein’s sex trafficking from 2010 through to 2023, including $12m from the former Duke of York and the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Andrew has consistently denied any allegations of wrongdoing and the payment came with no admission of liability.
But Giuffre’s sons, Christian, 19, and Noah, 18, have filed a claim in Western Australia stating that the estate is worth only $472,000.
Lawyers for Giuffre’s sons claim the estate includes an unspecified amount held in a family trust, a ranch in Neergabby near Perth, two cars, a horse, jewellery and the potential rights to royalties from Nobody’s Girl, her posthumously published memoir.
However, Giuffre’s lawyer, Karrie Louden, and her former carer and housekeeper Cheryl Myers, have filed a counterclaim suggesting the value exceeds what the sons are suggesting.
As well as payouts from the royal family, Giuffre was awarded money through the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Fund in 2020.
She received compensation of about $7m from Ghislaine Maxwell and JP Morgan, Epstein’s bank, which paid out a total of $290m to the late sex offender’s victims as part of a class-action lawsuit.
Much of Giuffre’s settlement money was believed to have been paid into the Witty River Family Trust, which was established in 2020 and lists Giuffre and her husband Robert as co-directors with equal shares.
At the time Giuffre died, she was in the middle of a divorce with her husband of 22 years.
In July, The Times revealed diaries and texts she sent to family and friends that alleged that Robert was “abusive” and “financially controlling”.
In the diary, which she kept from January, Giuffre expressed concerns he would drink and gamble away money she wanted to be inherited by Christian, Noah and their teenage daughter.
Giuffre suggested that Robert, 49, a former mixed martial arts instructor, had not worked since 2017. She alleged in her diary that Robert had been “living off money I was awarded as a victim of trafficking”.
He has previously said he would not comment on continuing legal matters.
The couple purchased at least three properties with the settlement money Giuffre received from Andrew in 2022, including the $1.2m Neergabby ranch, where Giuffre spent her final days. It is the only property listed by her sons’ lawyers.
A reported $2.7m from the late Queen is being held in escrow in a bank in the US. That would leave about $7m of $12m settlement unaccounted for.
The family trust was managed by Lisa Foster at PwC. Giuffre wrote an email to Foster in late February stating she wanted her money to go to the children as well as to other family members and Myers, her housekeeper.
Louden and Myers have claimed they have an “informal will” from Giuffre and she directed them verbally to create a formal one. They said they were named as a “joint institute executor of the informal will”.
The Giuffre brothers reject the validity of their mother’s purported final wishes, claiming that she was not mentally fit.
Separately, Giuffre’s younger brother Sky Roberts and her half-brother Danny Wilson are mounting their own legal challenge.
Wilson, 46, Giuffre’s half-brother in Texas, told The Times he and Sky wanted to stop Robert being able to “control her legacy”.
The next hearing has been scheduled for February 13.
The Times
