New York - Ghislaine Maxwell used former members of the
British military as security guards and wrapped a cellphone in tin
foil to avoid law enforcement detection, prosecutors wrote Monday,
calling her "skilled at living in hiding."
Manhattan federal prosecutors shared the new details about Maxwell's
arrest July 2 at a New Hampshire estate in opposition to her request
for 5 million dollars bond. The British socialite, who is currently
held at a federal jail on the Brooklyn waterfront, says she can be
trusted to show up to court on charges of enticing underage girls
into Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex abuse scheme and lying under oath.
FBI agents had to force their way into Maxwell's 1-million-dollar
hideaway on the day of her arrest when she refused to open the door
and fled to another room in the house, Assistant US Attorney Alison
Moe wrote.
"Moreover, as the agents conducted a security sweep of the house,
they also noticed a cell phone wrapped in tin foil on top of a desk,
a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection, not by the press or
public, which of course would have no ability to trace her phone or
intercept her communications, but by law enforcement," Moe wrote.
Agents questioned a security guard on the property, who said
Maxwell's brother hired a company staffed with former British
military to protect her in rotations, according to the filing.
Maxwell gave the guard a credit card with the same name as an
"anonymized" LLC she used to purchase the timber frame home in
Bradford, New Hampshire, authorities say.
"The guard informed the FBI that the defendant had not left the
property during his time working there, and that instead, the guard
was sent to make purchases for the property using the credit card. As
these facts make plain, there should be no question that the
defendant is skilled at living in hiding," Moe wrote.
Some of Maxwell's alleged victims are expected to speak in opposition
to her bail request at a hearing on Tuesday.
The British socialite claimed last week that she had been wrongly
substituted for Epstein in the public eye after the disgraced
financier committed suicide while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
The feds say Maxwell appears to have access to "vast wealth" in
foreign bank accounts and is worth more than 20 million dollars.
Nevertheless, Maxwell claimed after her arrest that she had less than
1 million dollars in bank accounts, according to prosecutors.
Maxwell's argument that she was not a flight risk because she
remained in the US after Epstein's arrest and suicide was
unpersuasive, prosecutors wrote.
"For years before her arrest in this case, the defendant likely
believed she had gotten away with her crimes. That illusion has now
been shattered, and she has a host of new reasons to use her
considerable resources to flee," Moe wrote.