Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell(/ˌɡiːˈleɪn, -ˈlɛn/ ghee-LAYN, -⁠LEN; born 25 December 1961)is a British socialite known for her association with financier andconvicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She worked for her father,the publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, until his death in 1991, whenshe moved to the United States and became a close associate ofEpstein. Maxwell founded a non-profit group for the protection ofoceans, The TerraMar Project, in 2012. The organization announcedcessation of operations on 12 July 2019, a week after the sextrafficking charges brought by New York federal prosecutors againstEpstein became public.

In 2020, Maxwell was charged by the USfederal government with the crimes of enticement of minors and sextrafficking of underage girls. The US Virgin Islands Department ofJustice announced on 10 July 2020 that Maxwell was also underinvestigation in the Caribbean territory.

Early life

Ghislaine Maxwell was born in 1961, inMaisons-Laffitte, France, the ninth and youngest child of Elisabeth(née Meynard), a French-born scholar, and Robert Maxwell, aCzechoslovak-born British media proprietor. Her father was from aJewish family, whereas her mother was of Huguenot (French) descent.Maxwell was born two days before a car accident that left her15-year-old brother Michael in a prolonged coma until his death in1967. Her mother later reflected that the accident had an effect onthe entire family, and surmised that Ghislaine had shown signs ofanorexia while still a toddler. Throughout childhood, Ghislaineresided with her family in Oxford at Headington Hill Hall, a 53-roommansion, where the offices of Pergamon Press, a publishing companyrun by Robert Maxwell, were also located. Her mother said all herchildren were brought up as Anglicans. Maxwell attended MarlboroughCollege, and Balliol College, Oxford.

Maxwell had a close relationship withher father and was widely credited with being her father's favorite.According to Tatler, Maxwell recalled that her father installedcomputers at Headington in 1973 and her first job was training to usea Wang and later programming code. The Times reported that he did notpermit Ghislaine to bring her boyfriends home or to be seen with thempublicly, after she started attending Oxford University.

Career

Maxwell was a prominent member of theLondon social scene in the 1980s. She founded a women's club namedafter the original Kit-Cat Club and was a director of Oxford UnitedFootball Club during her father's ownership. She also worked at TheEuropean, a publication Robert Maxwell had started According to TomBower, writing for The Sunday Times, in 1986 Robert invited her tothe christening in her honor of his new yacht the Lady Ghislaine, ata shipyard in the Netherlands. Maxwell spent a large amount of timein the late 1980s aboard the yacht, which was equipped with aJacuzzi, sauna, gym and disco. The Scotsman said Robert Maxwell hadalso "tailor-made a New York company for her". Thecompany, which dealt in corporate gifts, was not profitable.

The Sunday Times reported that Maxwellflew to New York on 5 November 1990 to deliver an envelope on herfather's behalf that, unknown to her, was part of "a plotinitiated by her father to steal $200m" from Berlitzshareholders.

After Maxwell's father purchased theNew York Daily News in January 1991, he sent her to New York City toact as his emissary. In May 1991, Maxwell and her father tookConcorde on business to New York, where he quickly departed forMoscow and left her to represent his interests at an event honoringSimon Wiesenthal.