Ghislaine Maxwell: Did she think the deposition would hurt her net worth?

After Jeffrey Epstein died in prison in August 2019, investigators turned to his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell has been accused of finding and grooming underage girls, one as young as fourteen, for Epstein and other powerful men. After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, Maxwell fled to a private home in New Hampshire. In July 2020 she was arrested and charged with six counts relating to the sexual abuse of those girls. She was transferred to a federal detention facility in Brooklyn and pleaded not guilty in a virtual appearance. The case moved forward from that point.

Unsealed deposition

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered Ghislaine Maxwell’s previously sealed 2016 deposition to be made public. The deposition formed part of a civil defamation suit brought by Virginia Roberts-Giuffre, who accused Maxwell, Epstein, and others of sexually abusing her when she was a minor. Giuffre’s case settled in 2017. Later document releases built on that record. In 2024 additional Giuffre-Maxwell files were unsealed with limited new detail. The 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act and subsequent Department of Justice releases in early 2026 added millions of pages, including further Epstein and Maxwell investigative materials.

Deposition details

In the 2016 deposition Maxwell stated, “I can’t think of anything I have done that is illegal.” She repeatedly denied recruiting girls for Epstein. When pressed on whether she had ever told anyone she recruited girls to reduce pressure on herself, she answered, “You don’t ask me questions like that… First of all, you are trying to trap me. I will not be trapped. You are asking me if I recruit, I told you no.” Maxwell also called Giuffre a liar, saying Giuffre “lied 100 percent about absolutely everything that took place in that first meeting” and was “just an awful fantasist.”

Second deposition

Maxwell often answered “I don’t know” or “I don’t recall.” Her refusal to answer led Giuffre’s lawyers to schedule a follow-up deposition that compelled responses on many earlier questions. Maxwell and her counsel fought to keep that second session sealed. Prosecutors later concluded there was no single smoking gun yet believed Maxwell had perjured herself in portions of the testimony.

Life of luxury

Maxwell is the daughter of British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell. She grew up in a fifty-three-room mansion in Buckinghamshire. After her father died leaving billions in debt, she maintained a high standard of living. In the United States she lived in a New York townhouse linked to Epstein and later sold it for fifteen million dollars. She also received roughly eighty thousand pounds a year in equivalent income from a Liechtenstein trust established by her father. After her 2016 marriage she transferred certain assets into a trust controlled by Scott Borgerson. The London property she owned was sold in 2021 for about two point four million dollars.

Net worth

At the time of her 2020 bail hearing, prosecutors identified more than fifteen bank accounts tied to Maxwell dating from 2016 onward, with balances ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to over twenty million. She also held property in London and the New Hampshire estate where she was arrested. Between 2007 and 2011, more than twenty million dollars moved from Epstein-linked offshore accounts to Maxwell, with millions later returned. The New Hampshire house was acquired in 2019 through transfers involving UBS accounts. Analysts noted that the roughly twenty-million-dollar figure likely represented only part of her holdings. Maxwell also drew annual income from the Liechtenstein trust tied to her father’s estate. After her arrest, assets were placed under Borgerson’s control through the post-2016 trust arrangement.

Conviction and Sentencing

Maxwell’s trial began in November 2021. On December 29, 2021, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted her on five of the six counts, including sex trafficking of a minor. In June 2022 she received a twenty-year prison sentence, a seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar fine, and five years of supervised release upon completion of the term.

Post-Conviction Legal Challenges

Maxwell appealed the conviction. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in 2024. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in October 2025. In December 2025 Maxwell filed a habeas corpus petition seeking to vacate or amend the conviction and sentence, citing claims of newly available evidence and trial fairness issues.

Epstein Files Releases

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed in 2025, required the Department of Justice to release millions of pages of investigative material. The first large batch appeared in January 2026 and included additional Maxwell-related files. These releases expanded the public record that began with the 2016 deposition and later unsealed documents from the Giuffre litigation.

Current Imprisonment Status

Maxwell is serving the twenty-year sentence at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas. Her projected release date is July 2037, accounting for good-conduct reductions under federal guidelines.