Ghislaine Maxwell convicted of sex trafficking

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of enticing underage girls to engage in sexual acts with financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty on five of six counts. She faces up to 65 years in prison.

More Variety

Maxwell, 60, was charged with sex trafficking and conspiring to lure Epstein's victims. The trial lasted nearly a month in federal court in Manhattan and included testimony from four women who alleged that Maxwell recruited them to have sex with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s.

She was found not guilty of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sexual acts.

One woman, Annie Farmer, testified that Maxwell gave her a massage when she was 16 during a visit to Epstein's ranch in New Mexico. She testified that Maxwell asked her to turn around and then rubbed her upper chest.

Three other women testified using only their first names, two of whom were pseudonyms. One of them, identified in court as Jane, claimed Maxwell and Epstein befriended her when she was 14. She alleged she endured years of sexual abuse at Epstein's home in New York, Florida and New Mexico. Sometimes the sexual acts involved Maxwell, she said.

Another accuser, Kate, said she met Maxwell in London in 1994. Maxwell then arranged for her to travel to Florida, New York and Epstein's island in the Virgin Islands to offer him gifts. sexual massages, she testified. Another woman, Carolyn, testified that Epstein assaulted her more than 100 times beginning in 2001. She told the jury that Maxwell would set up appointments for her to give Epstein massages, and that these massages would become sexual. She said Maxwell would pay her a few hundred dollars afterward.

Prosecutors also showed that Maxwell received $30.7 million from Epstein between 1999 and 2007 and argued that those payments underscored her complicity in Epstein's crimes.

In her closing arguments, defense attorney Laura Menninger pointed out inconsistencies in some of the women's accounts. The defense also sought to distance Maxwell from Epstein and argued that she was the scapegoat. Maxwell chose not to testify.

Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire in July 2020, almost a year after Epstein's suicide. Epstein had been arrested for running a sex trafficking operation involving dozens of girls, some as young as 14. Epstein committed suicide by hanging in his prison cell in August 2019.

Maxwell was repeatedly denied bail as prosecutors argued she posed a flight risk. Maxwell faces a separate trial on two charges that she committed perjury during a deposition.

The best of variety

Sign up for the Variety newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.