Ghislaine Maxwell offers to give up UK and French citizenship for bail
Ghislaine Maxwell applies for bail for a THIRD time by offering to renounce her UK and French citizenship so that she’ll no longer be considered a flight risk
- Ghislaine Maxwell applied for bail for the third time on Tuesday, according to court papers obtained by DailyMail.com
- The 59-year-old British socialite has offered to give up her French and UK citizenship in exchange for her release
- Attorney Bobbi Sternheim also said Maxwell is willing to put all the money and assets she owns into an account supervised by an asset manager
- Maxwell has been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since her arrest last July
- Judge Alison Nathan has already twice denied her previous bids for bail on grounds Maxwell might flee
- Sternheim argued that renouncing her citizenship from her birth country ‘demonstrates her earnestness to abide by the conditions of her release’
Ghislaine Maxwell has filed a third application for bail, this time offering to renounce her British and French citizenship so she cannot seek refuge in either country.
In a new court filing on Tuesday, the alleged chief recruiter for Jeffrey Epstein said she would ‘immediately’ give up her citizenship from the UK, the country where she grew up, in exchange for her release.
Giving up her citizenship with France, which has no extradition treaty with the US, would be ‘expedited’, her lawyers said.
Maxwell would also put all the money and assets she owns into an account supervised by an asset manager who would sign off on any spending.
Maxwell’s lawyers said the measures were ‘sufficient to address the hypothetical risk of flight and secure Ms. Maxwell’s presence at trial.’
But they face a high bar against a judge who has twice ruled already that Maxwell should remain behind bars until her trial in July.
Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell has applied for bail for a third time, by offering to give up her UK and French citizenship so that she won’t be considered a flight risk, according to new a court filing
The 59-year-old British socialite (pictured in a court sketch last year) was arrested last July on child sex trafficking charges and has remained jailed on grounds she might flee
New York federal court judge Alison Nathan has said that ‘no combination of conditions’ would ensure Maxwell attends court.
The filing comes after Maxwell’s lawyers have bitterly complained to the court about her treatment at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.
They have said she is ‘withering to a shell of her former self’, losing her hair and is being abused by the guards.
In a nine-page filing, Maxwell’s lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said that the 59-year-old socialite ‘will renounce her French and British citizenship to eliminate any opportunity for her to seek refuge in those countries.’
Maxwell currently has British, French and American citizenship.
‘The requisite paperwork is in the process of being completed. Renunciation of UK citizenship can be accomplished immediately upon granting of bail,’ Sternheim wrote.
‘The process of renouncing her French citizenship, while not immediate, may be expedited.’
Sternheim called citizenship a ‘priceless asset’ and Maxwell’s offer to give up citizenship from ‘the county of her birth and the country of her upbringing demonstrates her earnestness to abide by the conditions of her release.’
She wrote that doing this ‘should satisfy any concerns the court may have that Ms. Maxwell may try to seek a safe haven in France or the United Kingdom.’
The letter said that Maxwell would be prepared to put all assets she and her husband Scott Borgerson own into a new account to be overseen by an asset manager.
Maxwell has repeatedly complained about the conditions inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (pictured) where she is being held until her trial in July
The account will contain all of the couple’s cash and liquid assets and anything from the ‘pending sale’ of her $2million home in London, revealing for the first time that the home is being sold.
Maxwell offered a retired federal judge, William Duffey, as the asset manager and said he will have to approve any expenditure from the account apart from legal fees and taxes.
The only funds in the account will be money held in escrow for lawyers – her previous disclosures said she has $7.6million in legal retainers – and $450,000 for Mr Borgerson’s living expenses.
Sternheim said that Maxwell’s motions filed in recent months ‘significantly call into question the strength of the government’s case against Ms. Maxwell and the underlying justification for continued detention’.
She complained about how Maxwell has been ‘depicted as a cartoon-character villain’ to turn her into a ‘substitute replacement for Jeffrey Epstein.’
Sternheim wrote: ‘Ms. Maxwell is determined – and welcomes the opportunity – to face her accusers at trial and clear her name’,
Maxwell’s second bail application had offered a $28.5million package with an emotional letter from Mr Borgerson.
Ghislaine was a wealthy socialite, moving in elite circles until she virtually disappeared from public view in 2016 after Virginia Roberts – Epstein’s main accuser – filed a lawsuit against her (pictured, Epstein and Ghislaine in New York in 2015)
That included $22.5million in assets she owns with Mr Borgerson and another $5million from friends and family.
Maxwell had offered to give up her passports and submit to home confinement and electronic monitoring, but Judge Nathan rejected it.
In the third bail application, Sternheim said that the new measures enhance the already extraordinarily restrictive bail conditions’ they have put forward.
Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, is accused of enticing girls as young as 14 to Epstein to abuse and perjury.
She has pleaded not guilty.
Source: Read Full Article