Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, tried to flee from the FBI during a raid at her home in New Hampshire earlier this month, according to prosecutors.
Maxwell, 58, refused to open the door when law enforcement officers raided her home, prosecutors said in a court filing in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Monday. Prosecutors also said she had a cellphone wrapped in tin foil, which they claimed was a “seemingly misguided effort to evade detection” by law enforcement.
“Through a window, the agents saw the defendant ignore the direction to open the door and, instead, try to flee to another room in the house, quickly shutting a door behind her,” the filing said. “Agents were ultimately forced to breach the door in order to enter the house to arrest the defendant, who was found in an interior room in the house.”
Maxwell has been charged with conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom, and sexually abuse underage girls, as well as perjury in depositions regarding Epstein. She filed a request for bail of $5 million Friday in a court filing that said she “vigorously denies the charges, intends to fight them, and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.”
Epstein, 66, a registered sex offender and wealthy financier, was arrested last July on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges for allegedly abusing girls as young as 14. He was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell in August, which the New York City medical examiner determined to be a suicide.
[Read more: Federal officials take precautions over fear Ghislaine Maxwell might take her own life: Report]
Maxwell’s whereabouts had been mostly a mystery in the time since Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death. The youngest daughter of British publisher Robert Maxwell, Maxwell moved to New York after her father’s death in 1991 and became Epstein’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, eventually becoming his alleged right-hand woman.
The charging document against Maxwell said that “as a part and in furtherance of their scheme to abuse minor victims,” Maxwell and Epstein “enticed and caused minor victims to travel to Epstein’s residences in different states,” including Epstein’s New York City mansion, his Palm Beach estate, his New Mexico ranch, and Maxwell’s London apartment, and that Maxwell “knew and intended [this action] would result in their grooming for and subjection to sexual abuse” by Epstein.
Investigators also said that Maxwell worked hard to conceal herself as she hid out on a large New Hampshire property, noting she hired private security to protect her and to keep her whereabouts secret.
“Following the defendant’s arrest, the FBI spoke with the security guard, who informed the agents that the defendant’s brother had hired a security company staffed with former members of the British military to guard the defendant at the New Hampshire property, in rotations,” the DOJ said on Monday. “The defendant provided one of the guards with a credit card in the same name as the LLC that had purchased the New Hampshire property in cash. The guard informed the FBI that the defendant had not left the property during his time working there, and that instead, the guard was sent to make purchases for the property using the credit card.”
Prosecutors said that “as these facts make plain, there should be no question that the defendant is skilled at living in hiding.”
“Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein,” her attorneys told the court a few days ago. “Far from ‘hiding,’ she has lived in the United States since 1991, has litigated civil cases arising from her supposed ties to Epstein, and has not left the country even once since Epstein’s arrest a year ago, even though she was aware of the pending, and highly publicized, criminal investigation … Ms. Maxwell should be released on bail.”
Maxwell proposed that she be released on a $5 million bond “co-signed by six financially responsible people” and “secured by real property in the United Kingdom” worth more than $3.75 million. She also proposed that her travel be restricted to the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, that she surrender all of her travel documents, that she be limited to home confinement in the Southern District of New York with GPS monitoring, that her travel be limited to court appearances and her attorneys’ offices, and that her visitors be limited to family, close friends, and her lawyers.
The DOJ disagreed.
“The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell arise from her essential role in sexual exploitation that caused deep and lasting harm to vulnerable victims. At the heart of this case are brave women who are victims of serious crimes that demand justice,” the agency said. “The defendant’s motion wholly fails to appreciate the driving force behind this case: the defendant’s victims were sexually abused as minors as a direct result of Ghislaine Maxwell’s actions, and they have carried the trauma from these events for their entire adult lives. They deserve to see her brought to justice at a trial. There will be no trial for the victims if the defendant is afforded the opportunity to flee the jurisdiction, and there is every reason to think that is exactly what she will do if she is released.”
Both Epstein and Prince Andrew were longtime friends of Maxwell, and the DOJ is seeking an interview with the British royal.
