A grand jury has added to the legal woes facing Ghislaine Maxwell, handing down a superseding indictment with two new charges for the millionaire madam and sometime girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein.
The new indictment charges Maxwell with sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor and presents a new accuser, a victim who was 14-years-old at the time and alleges illegal activity between 2001 and 2004 — adding to the 1997 end date on the previous indictment.
With the new charges, Maxwell now faces eight counts on accusations from four minor victims. She had previously been indicted on four counts related to enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and two counts of perjury for allegedly lying to prosecutors about her activities.
The indictment says that Maxwell groomed the fourth victim “to engage in sexual acts with Epstein through multiple means,” despite the victim telling her she was under the age of 18. That victim was recruited to “provide Epstein with sexualized massages” at his home in Palm Beach, the indictment says.
The victim was paid “hundreds of dollars” by Epstein employees, including Maxwell, the document says, and she was encouraged to recruit other minor girls to provide Epstein’s “sexualized massages.”
“On such occasions, both Minor Victim-4 and the girl she brought were paid hundreds of dollars in cash,” the indictment says. The victim also received gifts, including lingerie, sent to her from an address in New York.
The fourth victim was added to conspiracy charges in the initial indictment and is included in the new sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell is in jail in Brooklyn awaiting the start of her trial, expected to begin in July. In a letter to US District Judge Alison J Nathan accompanying the superseding indictment, prosecutors said they expected no delay. The letter also said prosecutors intend to produce statements from more than 250 witnesses they do not intend to call to the stand.
Epstein died from an apparent suicide in August 2019 while in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, has been denied bail three times since her arrest last summer.
Read more about Epstein and Maxwell at CrimeOnline.
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[Featured image: AP Photo/John Minchillo, File]
