Ghislaine Maxwell hiding out in Paris?

Ghislaine Maxwell is currently wanted for questioning about her relationship with the late American financier and convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell all but disappeared from public life in 2016, when prosecutors began re-examining ­criminal complaints against her ­former boyfriend. Speculation has since abounded as to where the British socialite might be hiding – with new reports suggesting that she is likely based in Paris.

58-year-old Maxwell is being sought by the FBI following allegations that she supplied underage girls to Epstein and his associates. The daughter of the disgraced British media mogul Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell was born in France to a French mother and is thought to possess French and British citizenship. As France does not extradite its citizens, it would be a logical choice for Maxwell to locate herself there while wishing to avoid being sent to the United States.

The Sun has alleged that this is the case, claiming that Maxwell is living in a flat on Avenue Matignon, an expensive part of Paris near the Champs Élysées. The newspaper reports that the secret bolthole is linked to a millionaire business contact based in Normandy, who reportedly offered to let Maxwell use it as a hideout while she is being sought by the FBI. The property is located just a short drive from Epstein’s former apartment on Avenue Foch, which was raided by French police in September 2019.

The newspaper alleges that Maxwell was sighted on Avenue Matignon in the days before France went into lockdown in March and that she has remained in Paris during the virus crisis. She reportedly hopes that her status as a French citizen will enable her to avoid extradition if she faces any criminal charges in the US.

An unnamed source told the Sun: ‘Ghislaine is moving locations every month to keep private investigators off her tail and is ­staying at the residences of trusted colleagues and contacts. She wants to remain in France for as long as she can to take advantage of extradition laws and has a huge network of contacts willing to keep her hidden.

‘Under French law anyone born on French soil is safe from extradition to another country, regardless of the alleged crime. It doesn’t mean she won’t be ­prosecuted for her links to Epstein but if she does end up facing charges it will be in France and not the US.’

Maxwell is said to have been seen out in public on a number of occasions, wearing a scarf around her face to remain undetected. She reportedly walked the streets of the upmarket part of Paris, near the glamorous Market restaurant and Le Berkeley and Le Bristol hotels.

A local source is quoted as stating: ‘She was here just before France announced its coronavirus lockdown. She rarely went out, but when she did she wore a large patterned blanket which she pulled tightly around her face and draped across her shoulders. She clearly didn’t want to be ­recognised and was able to blend in. But she was wearing her ­distinctive gold sovereign ring on her left hand and a larger, glitzier ring on her right.’

Other sources reportedly claim to have spotted Maxwell walking away from the Israeli Embassy. There have been conspiracy theories alleging that Maxwell was a ­foreign ­intelligence asset working for Israel, where Robert ­Maxwell is buried. This speculation has fuelled theories as to who might be seeking to protect the late fraudulent publishing tycoon’s daughter. Maxwell reportedly spent time on a kibbutz in Israel after leaving school, with the Sun adding that she has numerous contacts in the country and is rumoured to have been offered a hideout there. The news outlet adds, however, that she is ­determined to stay in Paris.

The last public sighting of Maxwell was thought to have taken place in August 2019 – just days after Epstein’s death in prison – when she was allegedly photographed at an LA fast food restaurant. The photos were, however, quickly discredited as Photoshopped fakes. Metadata from the images was subsequently traced back to Meadowgate Media Investments – a trading company whose President, Leah Saffian, is a friend of Maxwell’s.

Attention then became focused on America’s East Coast, following a reported sighting of Maxwell in Manchester-by-the-Sea in Massachusetts. The Sun reports that she was thought to have been living with her then lover, tech CEO Scott Borgerson, at his £2.2 million seafront home, tucked away on a private road. Neighbours allegedly stated that Maxwell went by the initial G so as not to disclose her identity, and was spotted walking her dog on the beach. Borgerson later stressed that ­Maxwell was not at his home, and reportedly described her as a ‘former friend’.

Other theories as to where Maxwell might be have included Meyreuil, a town in Provence in the south of France where her sister, Christine, owned a mansion. The property was, however, sold two years ago and the buyers and neighbours have reportedly not seen the ­Maxwell sisters since the sale.

Indeed even Maxwell’s own lawyers – with whom she reportedly communicates only by email – are said not to know her precise location. Lawyers for Epstein’s victims have hired private investigators to find her and to have issued writs at various addresses, with no results.

The FBI, meanwhile, is seeking to question Maxwell over her links to Epstein. Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts) , who alleges that she was made to have sex with Prince Andrew while being kept as a teenage ‘sex slave’ for Epstein, claims that it was Maxwell who introduced the Duke of York to her when she was 17. Giuffre has alleged that Maxwell recruited her to work as Epstein’s masseuse when she was just 15, subsequently instructing her to give erotic massages and engage in sexual activities with Epstein and his friends, including Prince Andrew.

Another Epstein accuser, Maria Farmer, also filed a sworn affidavit in April stipulating that she and her then 15-year-old sister were sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell in 1996. She claimed Maxwell acted as a ‘madam’, driving around New York to find young women on the street under the guise of recruiting them to become models, before exposing them to abuse from Epstein and his friends.

Already a convicted sex offender, Epstein’s £60 million New York mansion was raided by the FBI on 6 July 2019. He was arrested and then found dead in his jail cell of apparent suicide on 10 August, while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. His Paris apartment was raided days later, with the city’s chief prosecutor announcing that he was opening a probe after US investigators identified Epstein as having links to France. The offices of modelling agency Karin Models, owned by Epstein’s former friend Jean-Luc ­Brunel, were also searched. The office is said to be near to Maxwell’s alleged current hideout.

The news comes following a public back and forth between the US Department of Justice and Prince Andrew’s legal team over the royal’s alleged lack of cooperation in the ongoing investigations into Epstein. But one of the US prosecutors leading the enquiries, Geoffrey Berman, has now been sacked from his role as Attorney for the Southern District of New York by Donald Trump after refusing to stand down.

According to the Times, the US Attorney General, William Barr, asked President Trump to remove Berman – who had also overseen the prosecution of a number of Trump’s associates. Berman initially responded by stating that he had ‘no intention of resigning’ after Trump ally Barr unexpectedly announced that Berman was ‘stepping down’.

Earlier this month it was reported that the US Department of Justice had asked the Home Office to help it question Andrew over his links to Epstein. The Duke of York’s legal team accused the DoJ of ‘breaching their own confidentiality rules’, claiming that the royal had ‘offered his assistance as a witness’ on at least three occasions this year.

Berman retaliated by stating that Andrew had ‘yet again sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate.’ He added that in fact, the Duke ‘has not given an interview to federal authorities, has repeatedly declined our request to schedule such an interview, and nearly four months ago informed us unequivocally – through the very same counsel who issued today's release – that he would not come in for such an interview… If Prince Andrew is, in fact, serious about cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation, our doors remain open, and we await word of when we should expect him.’

It was subsequently reported that Andrew would not cooperate with the Epstein investigation unless American investigators offer him ‘an olive branch’. The Duke of York has consistently denied any wrongdoing in regards to his links with his former friend.