Socialite at centre of Epstein scandal gave donation to hospital that treated his accuser
Ghislaine Maxwell took teenager for treatment after financier’s assault, court papers claim
SHE was one of Jeffrey Epstein’s closest confidants, accused of recruiting girls for the disgraced financier’s network of sex slaves.
Ghislaine Maxwell was even accused by one teenager of being the “madam” at the heart of the scandal.
Now The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that Miss Maxwell, the socialite daughter of Robert Maxwell, made a charitable donation to a hospital where the same teenager was treated after an alleged sex assault by Epstein.
Virginia Giuffre – who was pictured at one of Epstein’s parties with the Duke of York – has claimed that she was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for treatment after Epstein sexually abused her.
She said Epstein and Miss Maxwell took her there after an incident in 2001, when she was 17.
Miss Maxwell has previously called Ms Giuffre’s claims “fictitious stories” and has denied any wrongdoing.
Financial records seen by The Sunday Telegraph show that on May 2, 2007, Miss Maxwell donated $1,000 (£823) to the same hospital where Ms Giuffre was treated.
The donation to the hospital, which was also tax deductible, was listed in financial documents filed by Miss Maxwell’s private foundation.
The documents also show Miss Maxwell donated to a charity fighting child sex trafficking at the same time that Epstein was being investigated for molesting underage girls.
On April 15, 2008, she donated $350 to Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, known as GEMS. The New York-based charity seeks to rehabilitate girls, aged as young as 12, who have “experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking”.
It is described as “the nation’s
In a deposition for a civil case, Miss Maxwell called Ms Giuffre a liar and denied she was a ‘madam’
leading organisation serving trafficking victims and survivors”.
The charity did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
At the time of the donation, Epstein was negotiating a controversial deal with prosecutors amid a flood of allegations against him.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of procuring a minor for prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months.
Ms Giuffre made her allegations in court documents when she sued Miss Maxwell for defamation in 2015, and provided a medical report from the hospital to the court.
In a deposition for the civil case, Miss Maxwell called Ms Giuffre a liar, and denied allegations that she had been Epstein’s “madam,” procuring underage girls for him. The case was settled before trial.
Miss Maxwell, whose newspaper tycoon father plundered his companies’ pension funds before he fell to his death off his yacht in 1991, has increasingly found herself at the centre of the Epstein scandal after the Wall Street financier, her former boyfriend, was found dead in his jail cell on Aug 10.
He was awaiting trial in New York on new charges of sex trafficking underage girls. Prosecutors have said they will pursue any “co-conspirators”.
Miss Maxwell, who has not been charged with a crime, was photographed in a hamburger restaurant in Los Angeles on Monday, but it is not known where she is now.
Her private foundation, Max Foundation TR, was set up in 1996, with her as a trustee. The only other trustee was one of Epstein’s lawyers. Such foundations are used by individuals to make charitable donations, which are in turn deductible from their taxes.
Tax records filed by Max Foundation TR showed Miss Maxwell made only a small number of donations, sometimes none in a year. The biggest donation made was $2,500 (£2,058) to the Clinton Foundation in 2003. She also made a series of gifts to charities supporting deprived children, including Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, and Hale House, as well as to arts organisations.
There were few donations in recent years and by last year her foundation’s assets were just $1,245 (£1,025).
In 2012 she founded the TerraMar Project, a charity with the stated goal of protecting the world’s oceans and creating a “global ocean community.”
Over the next five years, the charity raised $196,568 (£161,819) in public donations. But to cover costs Miss Maxwell, as president, had to loan the organisation $549,093 (£452,000).
In its first year, TerraMar spent $73,796 (£60,750) on website development and $7,775 (£6,400) on telephone bills, according to separate tax records reviewed by The Sunday Telegraph.
Miss Maxwell worked 60 hours a week for the charity, but it had no employees earning over $100,000 (£82,322), the records stated.
As its founder she gave numerous high-profile speeches, including at the United Nations, and to the Council on Foreign Relations.
TerraMar closed on July 12, six days after Epstein was charged with sex trafficking underage girls.