For a woman known around the world, who has been the focus of documentaries, podcasts and endless news coverage, Ghislaine Maxwell still remains an enigma.
She has said very little publicly in the two decades since sexual abuse allegations about her friend Jeffrey Epstein began to surface.
We do not know how Maxwell met the late financier and paedophile, what the true nature of their relationship was, or how she funded her extravagant lifestyle.
Today, Maxwell will go on trial in New York accused of sexual offences, including that she conspired to entice girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein from 1994 to 1997 at his homes in New York City, Florida, and New Mexico – and at her residence in London.
She denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty, but if convicted on all counts she will likely spend the rest of her life in jail.
Advertisement
It is finally time for Maxwell to tell her side of the story.
The defence
More on Ghislaine Maxwell
Related Topics:
Maxwell’s lawyers may argue that she too was a victim of Epstein. Others employed by the financier and convicted sex offender have used the same defence.
It is highly likely Maxwell’s lawyers will claim she is being punished for Epstein’s crimes. They may say that prosecutors failed to convict him, failed to keep him alive, and now need someone else to blame for their own shortcomings.
Maxwell’s brother Ian has voiced another likely defence argument: that the “tremendous weight of negative publicity” means he is “fearful” a fair trial is not possible.
The defence team are expected to try to undermine the credibility of the four alleged victims by claiming some are motivated by money.
Over $125m (£94m) from Epstein’s estate has been distributed to around 150 victims.
As the alleged offences were committed between 17 and 27 years ago, an expert witness on “false memories” will be called to give evidence.
Professor Elizabeth Loftus will likely argue that media coverage and contact with other victims can lead to them forming incorrect memories of abuse.
Maxwell’s lawyers will also return to arguments around consent that were a feature of pre-trial hearings.
The third alleged victim in this trial was 17 years old when prosecutors say she was abused in London. However, the age of consent in the UK is 18.
The decision over whether Maxwell takes the stand and testifies is likely to be made late on in the trial, once the prosecution has rested its case. But it has its dangers.
“A defendant testifying is always risky,” said defence attorney Dmitriy Shakhnevich.
“Because the defendant will open him or herself up to cross-examination, to examination as to prior bad acts to prior criminal conduct to prior, possibly even immoral conduct.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:11
Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
The prosecution
The testimonies of the four alleged victims will be at the heart of the prosecution case, with only one, Annie Farmer, waiving her anonymity.
Ms Farmer claims she was abused by Epstein at his New Mexico ranch in 1996.
In an interview with CBS in 2019 she said: “Maxwell was a really important part of the grooming process… They worked together as a team.”
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the most prominent of Epstein’s accusers, is not expected to be part of the trial.
Supporting witnesses will be called. There may be significant but yet-to-be-revealed people who have agreed to co-operate with the government and provide testimony.
An expert witness on grooming, Dr Lisa Rocchio, will give evidence.
In a pre-trial hearing, she told the court that academic studies have concluded there are common strategies in grooming of children: starting with gaining access and isolating a victim, then developing trust, and later desensitising them to physical and sexual contact.
Prosecutors intend to use a “little black book” of contacts, including names and phone numbers of alleged victims, as further evidence.
It is also possible the government will present video footage from the extensive CCTV systems Epstein installed in his homes.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:49
‘I don’t see her administering black eye to herself’
Epstein’s web
Maxwell’s trial is keenly awaited, not just because the alleged victims have been waiting decades for justice, but because of the web of high society contacts she and Epstein boasted in the worlds of fashion, politics, business and royalty.
The pair were close to Prince Andrew and Donald Trump. In a 2003 magazine profile, Mr Trump infamously said of Epstein: “He likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Epstein had links to Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Lex Wexner, the owner of fashion chain Victoria’s Secret.
Some argue the fact the defendant is female is also significant.
“Given where we are in this moment in time with the #MeToo movement, this is the first time you’ve got a woman so publicly on trial for these kind of crimes,” said Vicky Ward, the investigative journalist who first met Maxwell in the 1990s.
Whatever the verdict in this trial, it may not be the last to involve Epstein’s associates. Many civil cases are also under way between various parties linked to the saga.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial will certainly provide answers, but it is unlikely to solve all the mysteries surrounding the case. The Epstein/Maxwell jigsaw puzzle is far from complete.
Sam Bankman-Fried was breathlessly described as a wunderkind – a boy wonder transforming the world of finance.
Renowned for his messy hair and unkempt appearance, he graced the covers of Forbes and Fortune, who pondered whether he could become the next Warren Buffett.
The 32-year-old was the founder of FTX, which had quickly become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange – a place where investors could buy and sell digital assets like Bitcoin.
Star-studded adverts featuring the tennis player Naomi Osaka and the comedian Larry David added to its allure – with eye-watering sums spent on sponsorship deals.
But in November 2022, Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire came crashing down after it emerged that customer funds worth $10bn (£7.9bn) was missing.
A year later, a jury convicted the fallen entrepreneur of fraud and money laundering after just five hours of deliberations – based on evidence from close colleagues who had turned against him.
Now, “SBF” is beginning a lengthy prison sentence of 25 years for what prosecutors have described as “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”.
His punishment may be little comfort to five million FTX customers who were suddenly locked out of their accounts as the company entered bankruptcy – and are yet to receive any compensation.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:19
November: ‘Crypto king’ guilty of fraud
An estimated 80,000 of Bankman-Fried’s victims were based in the UK. Some of them had millions of pounds tied up in the company after entrusting him with their life savings.
Advertisement
While slick marketing campaigns had presented FTX as a safe way to invest in volatile cryptocurrencies, the reality behind the scenes couldn’t have been more different.
Secret back doors had been established that allowed SBF’s other company, Alameda Research, to access money belonging to FTX customers and make risky bets without their knowledge.
Meanwhile, executives were spending lavishly. Private jets ferried Amazon orders from Miami to the firm’s headquarters in the Bahamas, £12m was spent on luxury hotel stays in just nine months, and employees in the US were allowed to order £160 of food deliveries each a day.
The fallout from FTX’s demise also reaches as far as the White House. Bankman-Fried was one of the largest donors to Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020, with the president subsequently facing pressure to return millions of dollars.
A new chief executive has been tasked with untangling where all the money went. Soon after FTX went under, he said: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls.”
Unusually, and thankfully, FTX victims are expected to be compensated in full eventually – kind of.
The payouts they receive will be based on what cryptocurrencies were worth in November 2022. But Bitcoin was trading at £16,000 back then and is now worth £55,500.
Bizarre plans to bring FTX out of bankruptcy and reopen the exchange have also been abandoned.
Other entrepreneurs in this space – who had loyal, cult-like followings and huge profiles – are also facing jail time.
His company had allowed individuals in Syria, Iran and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine to evade economic sanctions – and allegedly made it easy for terrorists and criminals to move money.
The billionaire faces jail time when he is sentenced next month.
Do Kwon created two cryptocurrencies that spectacularly collapsed in May 2022, with investors losing an estimated $40bn (£31.7bn) in a matter of days.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He later went on the run but was captured in Montenegro last year after attempting to fly to Dubai using a fake passport.
A civil fraud trial against Kwon and his company Terraform Labs began this week, with prosecutors warning: “Terra was a fraud, a house of cards, and when it collapsed, investors nearly lost everything.”
In a way, Bankman-Fried’s sentence marks the end of an era for crypto – when extravagant excesses and a lack of regulatory oversight were the norm.
Bitcoin’s recent gains have been driven by regulated products that allow investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency’s price without owning it directly.
And many of these products are offered by established, traditional finance firms like BlackRock, which is the world’s largest asset management company.
A damning report described the rise and fall of FTX as a tale of “hubris, incompetence and greed” – with Bankman-Fried and his inner circle showing little regard for the financial wellbeing of his customers.
Millions of people had their fingers burned, and many will be put off from ever investing in cryptocurrencies again.
But while the industry has learned some lessons, the crypto market’s rapid surge in recent months mean there’s a real risk of another bubble forming – and new bad actors taking advantage of investors looking for a piece of the action.
Disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of stealing billions of dollars from his customers.
He was the chief executive of FTX, which suddenly went bankrupt in November 2022 – leaving millions of users frozen out of their accounts and unable to make withdrawals.
The 32-year-old American could have faced up to 100 years behind bars – but last month, his lawyers argued such a sentence would have been “barbaric” and a five-year term would be more appropriate.
Initial reports said he had been sentenced to 20 years – but this has since been corrected to 25.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to jail Bankman-Fried for 40 to 50 years, arguing the public needed protecting from the fraudster and a harsh punishment would deter other criminals.
“The defendant victimised tens of thousands of people and companies, across several continents, over a period of multiple years,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
“He stole money from customers who entrusted it to him; he lied to investors; he sent fabricated documents to lenders; he pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system; and he bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes is worthy of a lengthy sentence.”
More on Ftx
Related Topics:
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Prosecutors also said Bankman-Fried had cost customers, investors and lenders over $10bn (£7.9bn) by misappropriating funds to fuel his quest for influence and dominance in the new industry, and had illegally used money from FTX depositors to cover his expenses, which included purchasing luxury properties in the Caribbean, alleged bribes to Chinese officials and private planes.
At the sentencing hearing in Manhattan, Judge Lewis Kaplan said the businessman lied on the witness stand when he insisted he had no knowledge of customer funds being used this way.
Advertisement
The judge also described Bankman-Fried’s claim that victims will be paid back in full as “misleading and logically flawed”.
“A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully bets the stolen money is not entitled to a discount on the sentence by using his Las Vegas winnings to pay back what he stole,” Judge Kaplan warned.
Crypto king’s jail term is end of an era
Sam Bankman-Fried was breathlessly described as a wunderkind – a boy wonder transforming the world of finance.
Renowned for his messy hair and unkempt appearance, he graced the covers of Forbes and Fortune, who pondered whether he could become the next Warren Buffett.
The 32-year-old was the founder of FTX, which had quickly become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange – a place where investors could buy and sell digital assets like Bitcoin.
Star-studded adverts featuring the tennis player Naomi Osaka and the comedian Larry David added to its allure – with eye-watering sums spent on sponsorship deals.
But in November 2022, Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire came crashing down after it emerged that customer funds worth $10bn (£7.9bn) was missing.
The judge said that the sentence reflected “a risk that this man will be in a position to do something very bad in the future”.
“And it’s not a trivial risk at all.”
He added that it was “for the purpose of disabling him to the extent that can appropriately be done for a significant period of time”.
Before he was sentenced, Mr Bankman-Fried apologised in a rambling statement.
“A lot of people feel really let down. And they were very let down. And I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry about what happened at every stage,” he said.
“My useful life is probably over. It’s been over for a while now, from before my arrest.”
Judge Kaplan said he would advise the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send him to a medium-security prison or less near the San Francisco area because he’s unlikely to be a physical threat to other inmates or prison staff, and his autism and social awkwardness would make him vulnerable to other inmates in a high-security location.
It took just five-and-a-half hours for a jury in New York to convict him of two counts of fraud and five of conspiracy last November.
Three people from Bankman-Fried’s inner circle – including his former girlfriend Caroline Ellison – pleaded guilty to related crimes and testified at his trial.
Bankman-Fried’s conviction followed a dramatic fall from grace from his time as chief executive of FTX – the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world at one time – when he was worth billions of dollars on paper.
FTX allowed investors to buy dozens of virtual currencies, from Bitcoin to more obscure ones like Shiba Inu Coin.
Flush with billions of dollars of investors’ cash, Bankman-Fried rode a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David.
But after the collapse of cryptocurrency prices in 2022, Bankman-Fried tried to plug the holes in the balance sheet of FTX’s hedge fund affiliate, known as Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried’s victims – an estimated 80,000 of whom are based in the UK – remain out of pocket, with some losing their life savings.
Prosecutors described his crimes as one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.
Sam Bankman-Fried, also known by the initials SBF, has tumbled from crypto king to convicted fraudster.
The founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange was found guilty in November of defrauding customers of his cryptocurrency exchange out of billions of dollars.
A Manhattan jury convicted him on all seven counts after a month-long trial.
FTX collapsed last November, shocking financial markets and wiping out the crypto tycoon’s estimated $26bn (£21bn) fortune.
Bankman-Fried grew up in California’s wealthy San Francisco Bay area, where he attended a $56,000-a-year school.
Both his parents were professors at the prestigious Stanford Law School.
He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he lived in a group house called Epsilon Theta, which promotes itself as an alcohol-free community “known for liking beanbags, board games, puzzles, and rubber ducks”.
He once told an FTX podcast he did not apply himself in classes and did not know what to do with his life for most of college.
Bankman-Fried graduated in 2014 with a major in physics and a minor in maths.
Vegan, teetotaller, effective altruist
Bankman-Frieddidn’t lose the values of Epsilon Theta after graduation, if what he has told journalists is to be believed.
He pushed back against claims of drug and alcohol use at FTX, telling the New York Times’ DealBook Summit there were no “wild parties” at the company.
“When we had parties, we played board games and, you know, 20% of people would have three-quarters of a beer each or something like that. And you know, the rest of us would not drink anything,” he said.
He is also known for being a vegan – and has stuck to his principles in jail despite not being provided with vegan meals, according to his lawyers.
They said he was “literally subsisting” on bread, water and peanut butter in the run-up to his trial.
His veganism is linked to a history of animal rights activism – which in turn is bound up with the effective altruism movement.
While studying, he was reportedly considering a career in animal welfare, having organised a protest against factory farming in his first year of college.
But he met with Will MacAskill, one of the movement’s leaders, who told him he could make more of an impact by finding a career that paid well, and then donating money to charity.
This is known as “earning to give” and it’s one of the central pillars of effective altruism, a movement that seeks to do good by using resources effectively.
When Bankman-Fried took a job at quantitative trading firm Jane Street after graduating, he said he donated about half of his salary to charities, including animal welfare organisations.
He talked about plans to eventually donate most of the money made in his lifetime, with a focus on “long-termism” or safeguarding the future of humanity.
After three years at Jane Street, Bankman-Fried quit with his eye on taking more risks to make more money.
He landed on crypto as the best way of getting rich quickly.
It started with Bitcoin. He realised it was selling for more in Asia than it was in the US – and figured if he could buy it in one place and sell it in another he could turn an easy profit.
“I got involved in crypto without any idea what crypto was,” he told Forbes. “It just seemed like there was a lot of good trading to do.”
In 2017 he co-founded cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, bringing in other recruits from the effective altruism community and reportedly donating half of the company’s profits to charity.
At its peak, the company was moving $25m in Bitcoin each day.
Two years later, he founded FTX, an exchange which allowed users to buy and sell buy cryptocurrencies, and moved to Hong Kong.
The FTX boom
From Hong Kong, operations moved to the tax haven of the Bahamas, where Bankman-Friedbought a multimillion-dollar waterfront penthouse.
The luxury property, overlooking an area used for filming the scene where Daniel Craig famously emerged from the water as James Bond in Casino Royale, was also used as a home office for Bankman-Fried and up to nine of his FTX devotees.
In 2021, Forbes described him as “the richest twentysomething in the world” with a net worth of $22.5bn, putting him at 32 on The Forbes 400 rich list.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:29
What went wrong for FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried?
Relationship with Caroline Ellison
Bankman-Fried had an on-again, off-again relationship with Caroline Ellison, having met her while working at Jane Street.
He persuaded her to join Alameda Research. As a fellow effective altruist, she was also attracted by the prospect of earning money to give to charity.
The pair lived together in the Bahamas penthouse.
Ellison, who became Alameda’s co-chief executive in 2021 and assumed full control last year, has pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
She appeared to have been unhappy at Alameda long before its collapse.
In July, the New York Times published an article citing her personal writings from early 2022, in which she described feeling “unhappy and overwhelmed” at work and “hurt/rejected” by a breakup with Bankman-Fried.
He was initially charged with conspiring to break US campaign finance laws, but this charge was dropped after The Bahamas said it was not part of its agreement to extradite him.
However, a judge has said the political donations can still be discussed at the trial because they are “intertwined inextricably” with the fraud charges.
The trial
After he was arrested in the Bahamas in December and extradited to the US, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven charges of fraud and conspiracy stemming from the collapse of FTX.
Bankman-Fried – who pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five of conspiracy – clasped his hands together as the verdict was delivered.
He admitted “mistakes” in running FTX when he testified during the month-long trial, but denied stealing at least $10bn of his customers’ money.
Prosecutors claimed he used the funds for risky bets at his hedge fund Alameda Research – with a huge financial black hole emerging when crypto markets fell sharply.