You're listening to Bloomberg Law with June Grasso from Bloomberg Radio. Former socialite Gallaine Maxwell spent the last few months at a luxurious one fifty six acre estate with cathedral ceilings, a barn and views of the mount Sun of pet Foothills, hidden away in the woods of Bradford, New Hampshire, the type of luxury retreat she'd grown accustomed to as Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend. Now, however, her accommodations are not so glamorous
and downright confining. Her new digs are at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, a place so infamous that a magistrate judge once said she was reluctant to send women there because of the unconscionable conditions. Maxwell was arrested last Thursday in New Hampshire on multiple charges, including conspiracy to entice underage girls to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein. Joining me is Bloomberg Legal reporter Patricia Hurtado.
Pat tell us about Xwell before she met Jeffrey Epstein. She's the daughter of a multimillionaire investor who bought a lot of newspapers in the UK and the New York
Dailing News. And his name is Robert Maxwell. And she grew up in the UK, born in France, group in Britain and educated at Oxford And she traveled in you know, prominent circles, and she met Epstein and became his girlfriend and seems to have introduced him to a lot of you know, high powered people and influential people like Prince Andrew. What was her relationship with Epstein, Like, she started as his girlfriend and then allegedly it evolved into her sort
of running this sex ring. Yeah, it's a very strange story that they dated and then according to some of the victims of sexual abuse by Epstein, they call her as kind of like a procurist who not only ran his household for him, but also seems to have lured these enticed young women into the Epstein's orbit, inviting them in and then during sessions she normalized what the prosecutor said was you know, a barent behavior. She normalized massages
that became sexualized. And they the girls who are very young, underaged, some from broken homes or very poor would be finding themselves in the company of a woman who was there and they thought she was their friend. And then suddenly they're being asked to disrobe and give him a massage. Has she been in hiding or is it the first time that they've decided to charge her. Well, there's different stories.
I mean, if you several newspapers claimed that she was in Paris, she was kind of like Zeller everywhere she's No, she's in l A. No, she's in Paris, you know, while she's on Avenue talk and she's eating outside on the Left Bank or whatever. So the government says that she has been in the United States since Epstein's arrest a year ago this this week, but that she was basically hiding. There was money that was transferred. That's where she bought this million dollar home hidden away in the
mountains of New Hampshire and Bradford, New Hampshire. So they were saying she was actually in high The government says she was actually in hiding, and that's one of the arguments they're arguing she should not get bail because she's a risk of a high risk of flight. She could abscone, she could cut off an electric um ankle monitor and take off and they wouldn't be able to find her because they she would have had a head start on them. Does she have money? Is that known? Uh, It's unclear.
The government does say that she seems to have been the recipient of millions of dollars transferred to her from Epstein's accounts, and there's back and forth. It's unclear why, but it's like the transfers go back and forth and one million will get sent to her on account controlled by her associated with Epstein, and then the money would get transferred back. This was all before he died in jail style last year. So the Southern District came out
with the charges. What have they charged her with? Yeah, there's six counts, including conspiracy, there's alluring and enticing of young underage girls for sex. There's also a charge that she lied under oath during a deposition where one of these victims sued her and she claimed to not know what they were talking about. So the government sort of added that on as extra and an extra charge that
she's also lied in criminal cases. It's interesting because they charged her with engaging inst activity between and when Epstein was case was brought for time period much later. It's unclear why, but it sounds like that's what the government had the strongest evidence. They have three women unidentified female victims who said they were underage miners when she lured them into his household and engaged in sexual activity with these young women as well as Epstein. Where is she now, Well,
she's being held at the federal jail in Brooklyn. It's in Sunset Park. You can see it off the Dusty b Quee and she is being held in presumably solitary confinement. It's a federal jail that's been criticized for having terrible conditions, and one federal magistrate was presiding over conditions there she called so bad she likened them to a third world country condition. She is likely to be asking for bail.
The government is arguing she should not be granted, and there will now be a hearing on the field day on the Live four team before a federal judge about whether she should get bailed. Do we have any idea what her defense will be pat it's unclear what her defense is. They haven't said anything. The Statute of Limitations does not expire when it revolves underage youth for sex trafficking, so there's no statute of limitations, even though we're talking
about crimes that susually happened twenty seven years ago. But I'm sure that her lawyers are going to challenge the veracity of these women. How do you know what you're talking about? How can you be sure that was twenty seven years ago? You know your memory it could be a very cloudy at this point, and attack them perhaps.
I mean, there was already an argument posed by f Stein's defense lawyers that these women were basically suggesting that they were sex workers and not victims um, which was not a view too fondly at their original oral arguments that they have for Epstein. His lawyers made that argument, and the judge didn't take too kindly to hearing these young women who are underage. You know, you can't form consent if you're fourteen years old, you're not a sex worker.
Even if you took money, you're not a sex worker because you know you're underage. And supposedly Epstein knew that, and supposedly she knew it. So there are so many questions that people are looking to this case to answer, And one of the questions is who else will she incriminate? Do we know what the government has against any other people?
We don't know that. And someone who's suggested to me that it's possible that some of the employees that work for Epstein, you know, longtime housekeepers say, or some someone like an assistant, maybe secretly cooperating. The government has already gotten that evidence. Conceivably, she is basically one of the key figures in this network and this web of that Epstein used to entice these young women. But there are
possibilities there are people that helped aid him. And there's an article today we're writing, um my colleagues writing the Deutsche Bank had helped the lawyer working for Epstein to make transfers of money. There's possibility that the government has said publicly that they would like to interview Prince Andrew, and former U S Attorney Jeffrey Berman kept inviting the Prince to come and speak. He says he's offered, but that the government wouldn't agree to, you know, didn't agree
to the terms. The government insists they have repeatedly asked him, and he's not agreed to. So they want to speak to Prince Andrew, what role, under what circumstances they may be looking to talk to him, It remains unclear. In your article, you mentioned that there's a potential that it could tarnish top figures on Wall Street, in Corporate America
and in Washington. Yeah, and it's intriguing that there are papers under seal that in the civil lawsuits that there were depositions given in which other men are named and one of the name defendants and other individuals like men who have sex with these young women. And it's intriguing about who would be on that group as those documents remain under seal. Do you make anything of the fact that prosecutors from the Public Corruption Unit have been assigned
to the case? You know, I was asking around about that, and it could be that it was considered the kind of case that possible involved high profiled individuals that may have been under suspicion or implicated in this involvement with Epstein, and he had a lot of powerful friends and claimed to know a lot of powerful influential people. So it could be that with the consideration, the government decided to go with that unit that has had that experience in
the past of dealing with potential high profile figures. And we need to remember that this case also came after Secretary Acosta did a did a plea deal when he
was the U S attorney with Epstein. So it's the kind of thing where if you're going after a descendant that already reached a plea deal with a guy who's now in the cabinet President Trump's cabinet, whether you want to have some prosecutors who have some agility with dealing with you know, high influential types that you know, it's a it's a hotitay tho that you might want to have somebody without that experience to deal with it. Where did the civil lawsuits stand? Is there in a state
of Epstein? Or might they now be able to go after her? There is a question if she can. She has sought to get access to money from Epstein, and there's also a slew of lawsuits by victims against Epstein and others involved with him, other employees and his accountant. For example. There is the state of money. It's valued at more than six hundred million dollars and it was in the Virgin Islands that he established it right before
he connad a suicide. So that money has now been made available for potential victims to come forward, and it's being operated by people who handled the World Trade Center. Non eleven victims fund, So it's another pocket of money that's available to victims, and they can come forward confidently that they can make a claim and it's going to have less it's going to be less restrictive and less demanding for establishing a claim than would normally be required
under a civil suit. And these women might get from some financial recourse. You know, some of their lives have been destroyed that they have never been the saints since they were young girls that were already from maybe a poor background or broken home or runaways, and then they became victims for for Epstein schemes and they've never recovered
since then. Is there any talk that there might be a plea deal in this case because she has information that prosecutors may want, there is a possibility, you know, I'm sure that the government would like to have her plea guilty and allow her to do some prison time and results of a plea deal. Some people have suggested that since she's so high ranking, you know, she was a very involved, high profile person in his world, she might know others, so they would certainly like to hear
from her. However, they noted, you know, it's a kind of thing like when you make a plea deal. Usually, don't go after the crime boss. You might go after his underlings first and work your way up with cooperators until you get to the big top person. And since Epstein's death, it robbed the government of having him at the center. Now she's the second closest person to the center. I'm sure they would love to have her flee guilty, but whether or not they would let her walk away
with too light a sentence doesn't seem possible. Thanks Pat. That's Gumber Legal reporter Patricia Hurtado and Brosso and this is Ver