Ghislaine offers to give up UK citizenship in bail bid

GHISLAINE Maxwell last night offered to renounce her British citizenship in a bid to be released from prison on bail.

The alleged recruiter for paedophile Jeffrey epstein said she would give up her British and French passports ‘immediately’ if she was granted her freedom ahead of a trial in the summer.

She would also put all her money and assets, thought to be worth more than £20million, in an account supervised by an asset manager who would approve any expenditure. In legal papers filed with a New York court, Maxwell’s lawyers said the measures were ‘sufficient to address the hypothetical risk of flight and secure Ms. Maxwell’s presence at trial’.

But they face a high bar against a judge who has twice ruled already that Maxwell should remain behind bars until her trial in July. In a nine-page filing, lawyers said that the 59-year-old socialite ‘will renounce her French and British citizenship to eliminate any opportunity for her to seek refuge in those countries’.

Maxwell’s lawyer Bobbi Sternheim wrote: ‘Renunciation of UK citizenship can be accomplished immediately upon granting of bail. The process of renouncing her French citizenship, while not immediate, may be expedited’. France has no extradition treaty with the US. The letter said that Maxwell would be prepared to put all assets she and her husband Scott Borgerson own into a new account overseen by an asset manager. The account will contain all of the couple’s cash and liquid assets and anything from the ‘pending sale’ of her £1.7million home in London, revealing for the first time that the property is being sold.

Maxwell is accused of enticing girls as young as 14 to epstein to abuse and perjury. She has pleaded not guilty.