(Bloomberg) -- Former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell “has not been fully candid” about her finances, said the judge who ruled she’ll remain behind bars as she fights federal sex-trafficking charges.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan on Monday rejected Maxwell’s request to be freed on a $28.5 million bond, saying her proposal doesn’t provide sufficient security that the onetime girlfriend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will show up for trial. The judge made her reasoning public on Wednesday, calling Maxwell’s disclosures to court authorities after her July arrest “woefully incomplete.”
“That lack of candor raises significant concerns as to whether the court has now been provided a full and accurate picture of her finances and as to the defendant’s willingness to abide by any set of conditions of release,” Nathan wrote in a 22-page opinion.
Prosecutors said Maxwell played a critical role in helping Epstein identify, befriend and groom minor victims for abuse. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail last year while he was awaiting trial on his own charges of trafficking in girls. His death was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell holds citizenship in the U.K. and France in addition to the U.S. She is being held in a federal lockup in Brooklyn, New York, where she turned 59 on Christmas Day. She proposed a bail package that would include a $22.5 million personal recognizance bond co-signed by Maxwell and her spouse, who hasn’t been identified in court papers. She also offered to post $8 million in property and $500,000 in cash as security.
Five friends and family members would post separate bonds while a security company would also offer a bond and watch Maxwell if she were released to home confinement, under Maxwell’s proposal. She also agreed not to fight extradition if she were to run.
The judge didn’t accept it. Maxwell exhibited a “pattern of providing incomplete or erroneous information” about her wealth, Nathan said. When she was arrested Maxwell said she had only around $3.5 million in assets, leaving out property held by her husband or transferred into trust accounts, Nathan said.
Maxwell claimed she was unable to provide a more complete picture of her finances when she was arrested, relying on her memory and without access to records.
The case is U.S. v. Maxwell, 20-cr-00330, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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