Ghislaine Maxwell is selling his London home – where Prince Andrew was infamously photographed with an accuser from Jeffrey Epstein – to raise money for court costs, his spokesman said.
The sale of the British socialite’s apartment on Kinnerton Street, in the trendy London neighborhood of Belgravia, is almost complete, spokesman Brian Basham told the Wall Street Journal.
He declined to identify the buyer or the sale price.
The estimated value of the stylish residence, which is just a few blocks south of Hyde Park, is £ 1.9 million – about $ 2.7 million, according to UK real estate website The Move Market. It was last sold in 1997.
Other properties in Belgravia have been sold for between $ 3.6 million and $ 11.2 million in the past two years.
The lucrative deal would increase the $ 7 million that Maxwell has already set aside for his defense fund – bringing the total to more than $ 10 million, Basham told the Telegraph.
“Ghislaine will be sad to see the house sold,” Basham told the channel. “She is devastated by all of this. She will have many fond memories. She will be very sad to sell the house. It was his haven in London. “
Epstein’s accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, says she was taken to Maxwell’s London home in 2001 and forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.
A photo of the couple taken at home – with Maxwell smiling in the background – has appeared frequently as news of Epstein’s alleged sexual crimes exploded around the world.
Prince Andrew denied the allegations.
Andrew and Ian Maxwell, Ghislaine’s brother, also suggested that the now famous photo is a fake.
The sale of Maxwell’s home is finally close to being completed after it hit an obstacle in February, when its bank, Barclays, closed its account the day after lawyers deposited £ 130,000 (about $ 180,000), Wall reported. Street Journal.
The deposit represented an initial deposit from the buyer.
In a letter revised by the Journal, Barclays warned the buyer against placing the bank in a position where it “could violate a law, regulation, code or other duty”.
Ian Maxwell accused Barclays of terminating his sister’s account as a way to protect his executive director, Jes Staley – who had visited the notorious Caribbean island of Epstein in the past.
But Basham said the Maxwell family had found a way to close the deal.
“We have no idea what Staley did with Epstein, but whatever it is, it’s his problem and he shouldn’t discount his problems on my sister,” Ian Maxwell told the Journal. “Staley is playing Pontius Pilate with my sister’s life.”
Maxwell has been in federal custody in Brooklyn since her arrest last July on charges that she helped recruit and prepare women and girls to have sex with Epstein. Prosecutors also claimed that she herself participated in some of the abuses.
His trial is scheduled to begin in Manhattan’s federal court in July.
Epstein, 66, hanged himself while behind bars in Manhattan in 2019 – about a month after being arrested on sex trafficking charges.
Additional reporting by Mary K. Jacob