Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell is a British former socialite and convicted child 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. The following year, she was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in the United States.
Born in France and raised in Oxford, England, she attended Balliol College, Oxford, in the 1980s and became a prominent member of London's social scene. She is a naturalised American citizen and retains both French and British citizenship. Maxwell worked for her father, Robert Maxwell, until his death in 1991; she then moved to New York City, where she continued living as a socialite and had developed a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Alongside Epstein, Maxwell built up a vast social network consisting of various prominent elites. Documents released by the United States Department of Justice reveal that she had maintained friendships with Naomi Campbell, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Kerry Kennedy.
Maxwell was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and charged by the US federal government in July 2020 with the crimes of enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls, related to her association with Epstein as his recruiter. 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. She was convicted on five out of six counts, including one of sex trafficking of a minor, in December 2021.
