Matthew Steeples suggests prosecutors at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell are right to follow the money; where did the £500 million her father plundered disappear to?
Earlier this week at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a JPMorgan Chase banker named Patrick McHugh testified that Jeffrey Epstein transferred at least £22.8 million ($30.7 million, €26.6 million or درهم110.4 million) to the alleged mucky madam between October 1999 and June 2007.
Speaking of this potentially filthy money, at a time when it was estimated at lower sum, to Time magazine in July 2020, Jordan Waxman, managing partner of New York wealth management firm Nucleus Advisors, said: “£15.2 million ($20 million, €17.7 million or درهم73.5 million) seemed a low amount for someone using offshore accounts. It was possible that was just the tip of the iceberg.”
Going further, Waxman added:
“I would venture to say 20 is probably what they found so far and that the net worth would be substantially more. The other thing is Jeffrey Epstein allegedly was worth £432-or-so million ($570 million, €505 million or درهم2.1 billion). What was she doing as his No. 2 and only with $20 million?”
“It could be an elaborate shell game – where the peanut’s underneath the shell and it keeps moving around and there are more and more shells.”
Whilst Mr McHugh was called to the stand on Monday to describe the transactions his firm conducted between the on-off couple, what prosecutors have not yet been able to unravel – aside from the fact that Epstein likely transferred funds from other sources to Miss Maxwell also – is how the deviant actually originally met and who actually introduced them.
First highlighted by crusading author of Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography Kirby Sommers, ‘The Bouncing Czech’s’ dodgy daughter was pictured sitting next to evil Epstein at a memorial lunch to the pension pot plunderer on 24th November 1991. This image is telling in that the pair clearly were connected prior to Robert Maxwell’s death as if Epstein hadn’t known the tyrant tycoon, why would he a) have been there and b) why would he have been given such a prominent place on the seating plan?
Going further of this image and suggesting the pair met “as early as 1988,” in September 2020, Broken: Seeking Justice podcaster Emily Saul remarked:
“In addition to these accounts, there’s also a photo, snapped a mere 19 days after Robert Maxwell’s death [on the 19th November 1991], that intimately links Epstein and Ghislaine. Shot at the Plaza Hotel during a memorial event for Robert Maxwell, the picture shows Ghislaine and Epstein in conversation. Wearing a blue silk jacket, Ghislaine smiles coyly at Epstein, who is seated to her right, wearing a white bowtie and an enormous grin. It doesn’t look like a first date.”
“If this is true, then the power dynamic between them shifts significantly. Perhaps she was the boss and Epstein did her bidding. Or, at the very least, they may have been equals.”
“Chronologically, geographically, the idea that Robert Maxwell setup his daughter with Epstein makes sense. Epstein and Robert Maxwell both had offices at the same address, the historic Helmsley Palace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan… Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein did business together.”
As I have always suggested of this case, there’s a key detail that most miss the point on and that is missing money. After Robert Maxwell’s death in 1991, £500 million ($660 million, €585 million or درهم2.4 billion) vanished from his company’s pension fund and his daughter, Ghislaine, moaned about penniless and that even her knives and forks had been seized, yet within a year was living in a New York mansion and the beneficiary of at least fifteen bank accounts with balances “as high as £15.2 million ($20 million, €17.7 million or درهم73.5 million).”
Interested parties should finally examine the matter of where that money actually originated and whether this charade actually centres on the matter of a Maxwell to Maxwell transaction with Epstein simply as a financial functionary. As is always the case with this story, the truth is stranger than fiction and yet again I would suggest that this evil empire was a very dirty laundry.
Pictured top: Since croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and since incarcerated alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell at the memorial event for her father in New York in 1991.
Great Job Matthew, I fully agree, always follow the money. There is lot to be unearthed .
Matthew my luv:
Would you please consider a book about The Mucky Madam?
It would be a best-seller, I promise you. xx
Well done indeed Matthew, me-thinks spot on. In fact the best bit of journalistic comment that I have ever read on this subject.
I bought Kirby Sommer’s book on your recommendation. It is very helpful and pulls in (and from) a lot of facts. With them all and developing thought this saga has the potential to best any thriller novel. Capt Bob, Russia, Mossad, more than close (!) father daughter et al.
One thing Epstein certainly did was schmooze himself into and alongside big dough and players. Every chance indeed that he knew RM and every chance that RM (or rather his surviving channels) would have vectored in those back-channels and certainly by his ‘special’ daughter. Well well well what if indeed Mr Rub-Down was actually the No. 2 in real terms. More than ever now curious to think of the interests, who shall we say, would not have perhaps been disappointed at his ‘suicide’.
The implications are enormous of course to everyone who knew and knows of the fate of £1/2b of plundered and disappeared money.
Great article Matthew, and the plot really thickens.
Well after a week or so of the trial I’m leaning 70% towards a guilty verdict.
The photographs of her and Epstein being displayed by the prosecution at her trial, seem quite damming, especially as she is playing down her relationship with him. Like you mention, Perhaps she was the boss and Epstein did her bidding
You’re correct when you say the key detail is, where did the dosh go? What assets does this woman control, that needs to be investigated.
It would be interesting to know how the trial would be going if her slob of a father was still with us.
Keep digging, Matthew…
My fathers company pension, Sun Printers, in Watford, was robbed by this bastard of a man..My father, one of the many ‘little men’, who had their pension stolen by Maxwell..and this after 40 years of paying into his pension fund..How this family is still allowed to function, just shows to me, the corruption that continues amongst the rich and powerful in the UK…Will it ever end ? I doubt it..Lets hope that the Mucky Madam gets to see what life is like, for many years to come, amongst the GP in the good old US of A 😃
You have a new fan Matthew. I am following you from New Orleans and totally intrigued. You are compelling and I am very grateful for the witty and power packed insights. Great work Keep it coming.I am hanging on your every spoken word as well and chuckling over serious matters.