Ghislaine Maxwell, the British heiress and longtime confidante of Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested NBC New York reports.
The FBI reportedly arrested Maxwell in New Hampshire around 8:30 a.m. Thursday. She’s accused of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors, and is expected to appear in federal court later today.
The indictment, filed Manhattan federal court, accuses Maxwell of helping Epstein groom girls as young as 14 at least as far back as 1994. “In some instances, Maxwell was present for and participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims,” it says.
A spokesperson from the FBI did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Maxwell has kept an extremely low profile since Epstein was arrested last year on sex trafficking charges (he later died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial). At the time, no charges had been filed against Maxwell, though she’d long been dogged by allegations that she helped procure young women for Epstein, and had been accused of such in several civil suits. Maxwell has previously denied these allegations, with a representative calling them “obvious lies” back in 2015.
Maxwell and Epstein reportedly met and began dating in the Nineties, but after their romantic relationship fizzled, the pair remained close friends. Epstein described Maxwell as his “best friend” in a 2003 Vanity Fair profile, in which she was also portrayed as effectively being his high-end assistant.
According to multiple civil lawsuits, though, that role included managing Epstein’s sex life. One of Epstein’s accusers, Sarah Ransome, alleged that Maxwell hired her to give Epstein massages at his home, and that Epstein and Maxwell promised to pay Ransome’s tuition if she provided sexual favors to Epstein and his friends (the suit was settled in 2018). Former Epstein employee, Maria Farmer, accused Maxwell and Epstein of sexually abusing her and her 15-year-old sister; and Virginia Giuffre alleged that Maxwell recruited her to serve as Epstein’s massage therapist, and that Maxwell and Epstein instructed her to have sex with him and his friends. Maxwell has long denied the allegations.