EXCLUSIVE: Ghislaine Maxwell is FIRED by lawyers representing her in bid to squeeze money out of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate – in yet another blow to the sex trafficker after her criminal defense team sued her
- The lawyers representing Ghislaine Maxwell in her bid to squeeze money out of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate have fired the convicted sex trafficker
- Court documents filed in the US Virgin Islands, and obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, show that the attorneys have withdrawn their counsel
- The firm Quintairos, Prieto, Wood, & Boyer, claimed in the documents that ‘despite repeated requests,’ Maxwell has failed to pay them
- It is the second blow in weeks for the fallen socialite’s ailing fortunes after her criminal defense team sued her, her brother Kevin Maxwell and ex-husband Scott Borgerson
- She now has sixty days to find new attorneys, but it is unclear where she will find the funds to pay them
Ghislaine Maxwell has been fired by her lawyers for failing to pay her bills.
Court documents filed in the US Virgin Islands, and obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, show that lawyers representing the convicted sex-trafficker in her bid to squeeze money out of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate have withdrawn their counsel.
The firm Quintairos, Prieto, Wood, & Boyer, claimed in the documents that ‘despite repeated requests,’ Maxwell has failed to pay them.
It is the second blow to the fallen socialite’s ailing fortunes in recent weeks.
Currently serving out a 20-year sentence in a low security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, Maxwell is also being sued by her criminal defense team for failing to pay legal fees of more than $850,000.
The lawyers representing Ghislaine Maxwell in her bid to squeeze money out of Jeffrey Epstein’s estate have fired the convicted sex trafficker
Maxwell argued that during her relationship with Epstein he ‘promised that he would support her financially.’ Her suit states that he ‘made these promises…repeatedly, both in writing and conversation’
The firm, Quintairos, Prieto, Wood, & Boyer, claimed in documents that ‘despite repeated requests,’ Maxwell has failed to pay the firm
Court documents filed in the US Virgin Islands, and obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, show that Maxwell’s lawyers have withdrawn their counsel
Maxwell, 60, filed a suit against Epstein’s estate in the Virgin Islands in March 2020, seven months after her former lover and ’employer’ committed suicide in his cell in the Metropolitan Corrections Center, New York.
The disgraced financier maintained a home on the Caribbean territories’ Little St. James Island – a place that became notorious as ‘pedophile island’ because of his criminal activities there – as well as owning Great St. James
Maxwell, 60, filed a suit in the Virgin Islands in March 2020, seven months after her former lover and ’employer’ Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell in the Metropolitan Corrections Center, New York
In her suit Maxwell claimed that Epstein, 66, had promised ‘indemnification for and advancement of attorneys’ fees, security costs, costs to find safe accommodation and all other expenses [she] has reasonably incurred and will incur by reason of her prior employment relationship with Jeffrey E. Epstein.’
The costs that she envisioned were, ‘in connection with any threatened, pending or completed suit [in] relation to Epstein…and his alleged victims.’
Maxwell argued that during her relationship with Epstein he ‘promised that he would support her financially.’ Her suit states that he ‘made these promises…repeatedly, both in writing and conversation.’
In 2008 Epstein was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a home.
Since then, according to Maxwell’s case, she, ‘incurred legal fees and expenses in connection with various suits,’ including civil cases brought by Epstein’s victims.
‘Consistent with his repeated promises,’ the suit states, ‘Epstein indemnified Maxwell and advanced legal fees and settlement costs’ incurred in relation to a civil suit brought by victim Sarah Ransome in 2017 and a 2009 suit brought by Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre).’
But when Maxwell submitted a claim to the estate on November 22, 2019, it did not ‘honor or even formally respond.’
Maxwell, who was by then under criminal investigation, filed her case the following March.
She now has sixty days to find new attorneys but, judging from the lawsuit being brought against her by her criminal defense team, it is unclear where she will find the funds to pay them.
The disgraced financier maintained a home on the Caribbean territories’ Little St. James Island – a place that became notorious as ‘pedophile island’ because of his criminal activities there – as well as owning Great St. James
In her suit Maxwell claimed that Epstein, 66, had promised ‘indemnification for and advancement of attorneys’ fees, security costs, costs to find safe accommodation and all other expenses [she] has reasonably incurred and will incur by reason of her prior employment relationship with Jeffrey E. Epstein’
According to that suit, filed on August 22, by Denver based law firm, Haddon, Morgan and Foreman (HMF), Maxwell is effectively ‘insolvent’ following a series of ‘suspiciously timed [property] transfers’ by estranged husband Scott Borgerson.
Borgerson is said to have ended things with Maxwell while she was behind bars. They are pictured in 2013.
HMF have brought their suit against Borgerson, Maxwell and her older brother Kevin Maxwell, 63, who attended his sister’s Manhattan trial every day and took the lead among her eight siblings in liaising with her defense.
But it is Borgerson who is singled out for blame when it comes to their frustrated efforts to recoup a bill that stood at $878, 302.66 as of June 27, not including interest.
According to HMF, ‘Mr. Maxwell and the family lawyer repeatedly told HMF that Mr. Borgerson controlled Ms. Maxwell’s money and was responsible for delaying payments to the firm.’
Borgerson, a former US Coast Guard lieutenant-commander, is believed to have met Maxwell nine years ago through speaking engagements connected to ocean preservation, a subject on which they shared a passion.
They were pictured together at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 2013.
At the time, Borgerson was married to Rebecca, the mother of his two children, a 14-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl.
Rebecca discovered the affair when Borgerson told her he was going to give a speech in London but was instead rumbled to be with Maxwell in Miami.
DailyMail.com has been unable to find evidence of Borgerson and Maxwell’s marriage – an event so secret that not even their own family members were unaware of it. But according to HMF’s suit it took place in 2015.
Four years later, in December 2019, while Maxwell was under criminal investigation and with the looming likelihood of incurring significant liabilities, the pair allegedly set about shielding her assets from future creditors.
HMF’s lawsuit states that Borgerson formed Granite Realty, a company of which he was the sole member. He then used Granite and a second company, Tidewood, to purchase a portfolio of properties using Maxwell’s assets either directly or through a trust.
HMF alleges, ‘Granite, Mr. Borgerson and other entities associated with Mr. Borgerson including Tidewood LLC, acquired several high-end properties including two condominiums in Boston, an estate in Manchester, Massachusetts, and an estate in Bradford, New Hampshire.’
The law firm that represented Ghislaine Maxwell during her sex trafficking trial is suing her, her estranged husband Scott Borgerson and brother Kevin Maxwell. Haddon’s Jeff Pagliuca and Laura Menninger were on Maxwell’s defense team and cross examined Maxwell’s victims
In her criminal case Maxwell was represented by Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, which is based in Colorado. The total now owed to Haddon is $878,302.66 – not including interest
Haddon, Morgan & Foreman claimed that the former couple and Maxwell’s family worked to hide her wealth while refusing to pay their bills
The couple’s neighbors in the small seaside town of Manchester were so disgusted when they learned that an accused sex-trafficker with links to Epstein was living among them, that they tried to harass her into leaving.
As exclusively reported by DailyMail.com it led to a court case where Borgerson successfully fought the neighbors’ decision to prevent them from using paths and a beach near their oceanfront property, part of the 40-acre estate shared by other owners.
Borgerson ‘dumped’ Maxwell while she was in prison and moved on with yoga teacher and local journalist, Kris McGinn
But by the time the decision was handed down Maxwell and Borgerson had already fled to their New Hampshire property on a secluded estate appropriately named Tuckedaway.
It was on this luxurious four-bedroomed property, set in lush New Hampshire woodland, that FBI agents swooped on July 2, 2020. They led Maxwell from her home in handcuffs, charging her as a sex-trafficker and Epstein’s co-conspirator.
Before the month was out, HMF’s lawsuit notes, on July 30, 2020, Borgerson transferred one of the Boston condominiums to himself for just $100.
It was reported that Maxwell and Borgerson discussed a ‘divorce of convenience’ following her arrest and ahead of her trial in November 2021 – she had been held in custody since her arrest having been denied bail.
Maxwell told the court that she had wanted to shield her husband from ‘negative publicity.’
Ultimately, DailyMail.com exclusively reported, that Borgerson ‘dumped’ Maxwell during a ‘confrontational’ prison phone call following her conviction in December 2021.
He allegedly told her that he had moved on and met someone else in the figure of Manchester yoga teacher and local journalist, Kris McGinn.
Yet according to the HMF filings both Maxwell and Borgerson maintained a mutual interest in shielding her assets.
In May 2022, Borgerson sold the Boston condominium that he had transferred to himself for $2.15million.
He also listed the Bradford property for sale for $7,295,000 claiming that Maxwell had no ownership interest in it.
The transfers effectively rendered Maxwell insolvent, according to HMF.
Yet, the suit states, Kevin Maxwell was busily making ‘false promises’ that there was, ‘ample cash and assets to cover the total sums that are either due for payment and are budgeted to become due in the coming months.’
The civil lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Colorado, names Maxwell, her brother Kevin Maxwell (left) and Borgerson (right) as defendants
In December 2019, Borgerson formed a company called Granite Realty LLC and another company called Tidewood LLC to buy ‘several high end properties.’ This is Borgerson’s $2.4million house – named Tidewood – in Manchester-by-the-Sea in June 2016 – before he formed the company
One of Borgerson’s properties included a $1million home in Bedford, New Hampshire, where Maxwell was hiding out when she was arrested
When it became clear that no such funds were forthcoming, with Kevin only paying $143,500 of a bill that stood at $956,671 the older Maxwell blamed Borgerson for holding up payments.
In fact, HMF goes as far as to characterize Kevin Maxwell’s conduct, with frequent promises of imminent cash, as ‘fraud.’
It is a word that has stalked the Maxwell family down through the years and is forever associated with the family’s late patriarch, Robert Maxwell, who was 68 when he died.
Nor is it the first time that Kevin has been roped into trying to salvage a family member’s financial fortunes.
Notorious former British newspaper mogul, Robert, had many nefarious dealings and was accused of being a double, even triple agent for foreign regimes including Israel and Russia.
But he is perhaps most infamous for plundering the pension fund of Mirror Group, the newspaper company he owned to the tune of millions.
Robert disappeared off his yacht, named the Lady Ghislaine after his daughter, in the early hours of November 5, 1991.
Twenty-four hours earlier he had argued with Kevin in a telephone call about a scheduled meeting with the Bank of England over Maxwell’s default on a staggering 50 million pounds ($56.63million) in loans.
Kevin and his brother Ian, now 66, tried to prop up their late father’s business interests, but the company soon collapsed. Kevin was declared bankrupt with debts of $400million.
He, Ian and two other company directors went on trial for conspiracy to defraud but were acquitted in 1995.
Now Kevin has once again found himself the target of allegations of ‘fraud’ albeit in a civil suit over his mishandling of his sister’s huge legal fees.
According to the suit, Kevin knew that his promises regarding payment were false when he made them. It states, ‘HMF relied on Mr. Maxwell’s promises to its detriment.’
HMF is seeking damages for one and a half times the value of the assets transferred by Borgerson or one and a half times their legal fees – whichever is less.
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