Ghislaine Maxwell‘s attempt to get free from jail on a $28.5m bail package backfired spectacularly after a judge said it ‘only solidifies’ the risk of her fleeing.
Judge Alison Nathan said the vast sum, including $22.5m from Maxwell and her husband, was so much higher than the $3.5m she claimed to be worth after her arrest in July that it was suspicious.
Judge Nathan wrote that Maxwell was guilty of ‘misdirection’ to the court by failing to disclose her true worth the first time around.
Maxwell’s ‘lack of candor is, if anything, stronger now than in July’ and her representations back then were ‘woefully incomplete’, the judge said.
The scathing assessment was part of a 22-page filing to federal court in New York which set out Judge Nathan’s reasons for denying Maxwell bail for a second time.
The ruling means that Maxwell will remain in the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn until at least July next year when her trial is due to take place.
Judge Alison Nathan said the vast sum, including $22.5m from Maxwell and her husband, was so much higher than the $3.5m she claimed to be worth after her arrest in July that it was suspicious.
Judge Nathan wrote that Maxwell was guilty of ‘misdirection’ to the court by failing to disclose her true worth the first time around
Maxwell, 58, has been held there since July when she was arrested for allegedly procuring girls as young as 14 for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.
The British socialite is also accused of perjuring herself in a civil case and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Maxwell’s second bail application had included more than a dozen letters from family and friends in support.
The $22.5m in cash and assets from her and husband Scott Borgerson, 44, a tech entrepreneur, was on top of $5m in property from her family and a $1m bond from a private security company.
Maxwell’s ‘lack of candor is, if anything, stronger now than in July’ and her representations back then were ‘woefully incomplete’, the judge said
But in the filing Judge Nathan said that Maxwell’s new bail application showed she had ‘extraordinary financial resources’ she could use to ‘flee the country undetected’.
The judge wrote: ‘The new information provided in the renewed application only solidifies the court’s view that the defendant plainly poses a risk of flight and that no combination of conditions can ensure her appearance’.
Judge Nathan said that Maxwell ‘providing incomplete or erroneous information to the court or pretrial services’ was a ‘significant’ factor in her decision.
After her arrest in July Maxwell claimed she had no access to her financial records and was piecing her assets together from memory.
But Judge Nathan said that the difference between $3.5m and $22.5m was so big that Maxwell’s explanation stretched credibility.
Maxwell is accused of procuring girls as young as 14 for Epstein between 1994 and 1997
The judge wrote: ‘Even if the defendant was unable to provide an exact number, however, the difference between the number she originally reported to pretrial services and the number now presented to the court makes it unlikely that the misrepresentation was the result of the defendant’s mis-estimation rather than misdirection.
‘In sum, the evidence of a lack of candor is, if anything, stronger now than in July 2020, as it is clear to the court that the defendant’s representations to pretrial services were woefully incomplete.
‘That lack of candor raises significant concerns as to whether the court has now been provided a full and accurate picture of her finances and as to the defendant’s willingness to abide by any set of conditions of release’.
Judge Nathan noted that Maxwell had leaned heavily on a letter from Mr Borgerson – who she acknowledged as her husband for the first time in the bail application – saying that she would never leave the US and abandon him.
Borgerson wrote that Maxwell was a ‘wonderful and loving’ person and he believed in her innocence.
The ruling means that Maxwell will remain in the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York until at least July next year when her trial is due to take place
Judge Nathan wrote: ‘The defendant now argues that her newly revealed relationship with her spouse signals her deep effective ties in the country, but at the time she was arrested, she was not living with him and claimed to be getting divorced.
‘Indeed, she does not propose to live with him were she to be released on bail, undercutting her argument that that relationship would create an insurmountable burden to her fleeing’.
Elsewhere in the ruling Judge Nathan said that, contrary to Maxwell’s claims, the case against her remained ‘strong’.
The allegations from the three accusers would be backed up by flight records and other witnesses’ corroborating testimony, the judge said.