Ghislaine Maxwell’s bail denied again: Her net worth can’t save her

Ghislaine Maxwell recently submitted a second bail proposal. The former British socialite and daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell was a close friend to Jeffrey Epstein and allegedly his “madam-in-chief”. She was charged in July with assisting him in his abuse of girls over twenty years ago.

She was denied bail by a federal judge on Monday, meaning she will remain in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The ruling was a response to the $28.5 million bail proposal Maxwell offered earlier this month. This is the second time her bail wasn’t approved.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s new bail request

During her arraignment over the summer after she was first arrested, the fifty-nine-year-old was denied bail. With her latest bail offer, she proposed that she be transferred from the federal jail to home confinement with all day surveillance.

Maxwell & her husband offered a $22.5 million bail bond. The couple claimed the money is their entire net worth. The other $5 million would be from Maxwell’s family & friends. In the bail application, there are letters from her friends & family in support of her, which talk about their relationships with Maxwell. One of the letters said: “she has her father’s charisma.”

Debate between defense & prosecutors

In a court filing, Maxwell’s lawyers wrote the request will cost “all of her and her spouse’s assets, her family’s livelihood and the financial security of her closest friends and family”. They also said she wouldn’t flee if she got house arrest and would have guards to make sure she’d stay put.

Federal prosecutors didn’t think the same way. They argued she remained “an extreme flight risk”, which was the stated reason she was denied bail the first time.  

Alison J. Nathan of Federal District Court in Manhattan, the judge who made the ruling, agreed. She wrote the government “met its burden of persuasion that the defendant poses a flight risk”. This was the same judge who rejected Maxwell’s July bail request with a $5 million bond.

What did Ghislaine Maxwell do?

Maxwell was charged with six counts, including transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and perjury. She pleaded not guilty and still maintains her innocence. If she’s convicted, she could face up to thirty-five years in prison.

Audrey Strauss, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, announced her charges in July. Strauss said she “enticed minor girls, got them to trust her, then delivered them into the trap.” The prosecutor was referring to Epstein’s trap. In 2019, Epstein was found dead from an apparent suicide in his jail cell. He was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

More information about Ghislaine Maxwell’s net worth

After Epstein died and before she was arrested, Maxwell spent several months hiding in a New Hampshire house. Maxwell’s lawyers claimed her stay in New Hampshire was Maxwell’s way of avoiding reporters, not that she was fleeing authority. However, prosecutors used this as evidence she eluded law enforcement and used it as one reason to deny her bail in July.

Prosecutors said she had passports from three different countries and fifteen bank accounts with over $20 million, making her net worth pretty high.

Prosecutors also said $20 million was moved from Epstein’s accounts to Maxwell’s between 2007 & 2011. Her net worth was described by the government as “opaque and indeterminate”. 

Living in luxury?

In her latest bail request, Maxwell’s lawyers said her conditions in jail aren’t satisfactory. They wrote she was often strip-searched, deprived of food and sleep in isolation, and wasn’t able to talk to friends or family.

Federal prosecutors said her conditions are fine. They said Maxwell gets out of her cell for thirteen hours a day. They also said she has her own shower, phone, television, and two computers. They said those conditions “set her far apart from general population inmates”. 

Her trial has yet to unfold. It’s scheduled for July 2021 but she’s still in jail for now and there’s no news of a third request for bail.