Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell is a British former socialite and convicted sex offender. In 2021, she was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with the deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In June 2022, she was sentenced in a New York court to twenty years' imprisonment.
Born in France and raised in Oxford, Maxwell is the daughter of British media proprietor Robert Maxwell and French-born researcher of the holocaust, Elisabeth Maxwell. In the 1980s she attended Balliol College, Oxford, and became a prominent member of London's social scene. Maxwell worked for her father until his death in 1991; she then moved to New York City, where she continued living as a socialite and had a relationship with Epstein. In 2012, Maxwell founded a non-profit group for the protection of oceans. Following sex trafficking allegations being brought by prosecutors against Epstein in July 2019, the organisation announced cessation of operations the same month. Maxwell is a naturalised US citizen and retains both French and British citizenship.
In July 2020, Maxwell was arrested and charged by the federal government of the United States with the crimes of enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls, related to her association with Epstein. She was denied bail as a flight risk, with the judge expressing concerns regarding her "completely opaque" finances, her skill at living in hiding, and the fact that France does not extradite its citizens. In December 2021, she was convicted on five out of six counts, including one of sex trafficking of a minor. She faces a second criminal trial for two charges of lying under oath about Epstein's abuse of underage girls.
