Maxwell denies introducing Duke to Epstein, friend claims
GHISLAINE MAXWELL denies introducing the Duke of York to Jeffrey Epstein, a friend has said, contradicting claims the Duke made in a BBC television interview.
In November last year the Duke told Emily Maitlis, the Newsnight presenter, that he first met the financier in 1999 through Ms Maxwell.
He said: “I met through his girlfriend back in 1999 who … and I’d known her since she was at university in the UK.”
The Duke insisted that because of his closeness to Ms Maxwell it was in- evitable he would become friends with the disgraced financier.
But ahead of her court appearance in New York tomorrow on charges of procuring young girls for Epstein, friends have dismissed the Duke’s claims that she had introduced them.
One unnamed associate of Ms Maxwell said the introduction was made by Lynn Forester in 1999 at a birthday party she was hosting for Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, the British billionaire she would marry the next year.
The friend said the party took place at the Hamptons, the beach resort near New York, and insisted Ms Maxwell was not present. The friend told The
Mail on Sunday: “Ghislaine wasn’t at that party. Lynn introduced Andrew to Epstein. It was all about the money with Andrew and Epstein … there is a lot more to come out.”
Ms Maxwell, 58, is expected to be formally charged with sex offences when she appears in court in New York via video link from a detention centre.
She is expected to apply for bail offering a security of £4million.
But lawyers in the US insist she is unlikely to be granted bail due to the gravity of the charges and the fact she will be considered a flight risk. If convicted she faces up to 35 years in prison.
“In this case, the burden shifts to her to prove that she is not a flight risk,” said Jodi Avergun, a former federal prosecutor of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. “She is also a citizen of at least three countries, which makes it easier for her to flee.”
The charges Ms Maxwell faces predate the Duke’s introduction to Epstein, but US prosecutors have said that they are still keen to speak to him about their association.
One of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has claimed she was forced to have sex with the Duke at Ms Maxwell’s Belgravia Mews house.
The Duke has insisted he has no recollection of ever meeting Ms Giuffre and has denied her claims.