British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested Thursday for her alleged role in recruiting and abusing underage girls in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring.
But the federal prosecutors who charged the former couple hinted that the criminal case won’t end with the indictment against Maxwell. At a press conference, they said the “investigation remains ongoing” and they’ll continue fighting “to bring justice to individuals” who facilitated or participated in two decades of abuse.
One person they’d like to speak with is Prince Andrew. The 60-year-old royal was friends with Epstein and Maxwell for years, and stands accused of abusing one victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who was kept as Epstein’s “sex slave” from 1999 to 2002.
Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told reporters, “We would welcome Prince Andrew coming in to talk with us, we would like to have the benefit of his statement.”
A person close to the Duke’s legal team told The Daily Beast, “The Duke’s team remains bewildered given that we have twice communicated with the DOJ in the last month, and to date, we have had no response.”
Aside from Maxwell and the Duke of York, authorities are looking at two other Brits as part of their probe, The Daily Beast has learned.
According to a 2019 report in The Telegraph, prosecutors wanted to speak to Maxwell’s former personal assistant Emmy Tayler, who was named in a batch of unsealed court records in Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell.
Clare Hazell, another Brit who worked for Epstein in the 1990s, was also someone investigators wanted to contact, people with knowledge of the probe told The Daily Beast. The interior designer now goes by the Countess of Iveagh, after she married Edward Guinness of the brewing company dynasty in 2001. (She was listed as Clare Hazell-Iveagh in Epstein’s infamous Little Black Book.)
It’s unclear if the feds have interviewed other boldfaced names in Epstein’s orbit, or the co-conspirators who secured immunity in Epstein’s shady 2008 plea deal, which was secretly brokered by federal prosecutors in Miami.
But there appear to be many friends and agents of the deceased sex offender who could be next on the SDNY’s list of people of interest as they probe Epstein and his sexual abuse network:
Jean-Luc Brunel
The 74-year-old French talent agent—who opened his MC2 modeling agency with $1 million from Epstein—has long been accused of providing a steady stream of young women and underage girls for the financier to abuse. In a 2015 affidavit, Giuffre said she was forced to have sex with Brunel “many times when I was 16 through 19 years old.”
“He was another of Epstein’s powerful friends who had many contacts with young girls throughout the world,” Giuffre stated. “In fact, his only similarity with Epstein and the only link to their friendship appeared to be that Brunel could get dozens of underage girls and feed Epstein’s (and Maxwell’s) strong appetite for sex with minors.” Brunel has denied these accusations, and even sued Epstein, claiming his connections to the money-manager destroyed his reputation.
Last fall, Brunel was rumored to be hiding in Brazil. Around the same time, we revealed he’d quietly sold off MC2. When The Daily Beast called Brunel’s onetime lawyer, Joe Titone, he said of Maxwell, “She got picked up? Someone called me and told me.” He added of Brunel: “I haven’t represented him for some time. I can’t help you.”
In an interview this week, Giuffre told The Daily Beast, “I thought after Jeffrey Epstein got arrested, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jean-Luc Brunel would be next.”
Brunel did not respond to a request for comment.
Prince Andrew
The British royal has vehemently denied any involvement in Epstein’s sex ring—despite a photo of himself at Maxwell’s home with his arm around then-17-year-old Giuffre’s exposed midriff. “Epstein made me have sex with Prince Andrew several times,” Giuffre said in her 2015 affidavit. “I had sex with him three times, including one orgy. I knew he was a member of the British Royal Family, but I just called him ‘Andy.’”
When Netflix released an Epstein docuseries in May, the show included an interview from a former employee who claims to have witnessed Andrew grinding on top of a topless young woman by the pool at the financier’s private Caribbean island.
Former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman accused the Duke of York of refusing to cooperate with their probe and asked British officials for assistance. Prince Andrew’s legal team, however, claims he offered himself as a witness “at least three times.”
Leslie Wexner
The Limited Brands chairman, who denies having knowledge of Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, was Epstein’s only known client in 2003, when Vanity Fair published a profile on the mysterious money-manager. But accuser Maria Farmer says she was abused by Epstein and Maxwell in 1996 while visiting Wexner’s Ohio estate. (Epstein initially hired Farmer as an art consultant, though she says most of her time was spent “manning the front door at his New York mansion and keeping records of people who came to the home.”)
Farmer claimed Wexner’s security guards tried to hold her at the compound against her will after she attempted calling police about the alleged assault. She also told the Washington Post she had to ask permission from Wexner’s wife, Abigail, to go outside.
Last fall, Wexner said he was “embarrassed” to have been associated with the convicted sex offender, whom he claims took advantage of him. The retail mogul gave Epstein the power of attorney and claims he “misappropriated” $46 million of his investments.
Wexner did not respond to a request for comment.
One longtime victims’ lawyer, Brad Edwards, told reporters last summer that he did not believe Wexner was aware of the child sex trafficking.
Farmer, however, wasn’t the only person associated with Epstein who visited Wexner’s property in New Albany.
Clare Hazell
According to The Daily Mail, Hazell flew on Epstein’s private jet 32 times between 1998 and 2000, including trips to Epstein’s private isle in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
One 43-year-old college friend told The Daily Beast that Hazell attended Ohio State University on Epstein’s dime in 1995 and that she described the financier as her benefactor. The former friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said Hazell took him to Epstein’s portion of the Wexner estate which was called “the rotunda.”
It’s unclear how Hazell was introduced to Epstein and Maxwell, but the source said Hazell had a modeling portfolio and a posh Columbus apartment. Hazell also allegedly took the friend to a country club and bought him a racquet and clothes so he was allowed inside.
But if Maxwell and Epstein called or were in town, the pals’ plans would be canceled. The friend got the impression Hazell was at their beck and call.
“It’s my opinion, but at some level I kind of felt like she was being shopped to eligible suitors,” the former pal said. He recalled Hazell showing him pictures of her new boyfriend, who’d vacationed with her at Epstein’s Caribbean property. “In my conversations with her, she was looking for a certain man that was going to provide her with a certain lifestyle.”
In October of 2001, Hazell married Guinness, the 4th Earl of Iveagh. The couple has a son and lives at the grand stately home Elveden Hall in Suffolk, England.
The friend said he wondered why the British Hazell, who wanted to be an interior designer, chose to attend the public university in Ohio. Hazell did not respond to a request for comment.
“At some level I kind of felt like she was being shopped to eligible suitors.”
Glenn and Eva Dubin
The hedge-funder and his wife, who dated Epstein the 1980s, have longstanding ties to Epstein and Maxwell. The Dubins even allowed Epstein to be around their children—including Celina Dubin, who was reportedly his godchild—following his 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting minors for prostitution. The couple also helped reintroduce Epstein into high society in the following years.
Last August, a tranche of unsealed court records revealed Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with powerful men including Dubin. And that Rinaldo Rizzo, an ex-butler of the Dubins, had testified about a distraught 15-year-old girl from Sweden who’d been brought to the couple’s home. The girl allegedly told Rizzo she was Epstein’s “personal assistant,” and had been pressured to have sex at his private island.
The Dubins declined to comment but in a prior statement Glenn Dubin has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and says he has evidence to prove it.
Sarah Kellen
The 40-year-old (who was granted immunity in Epstein’s plea deal) worked as Epstein’s personal assistant for years, allegedly scheduling the “massage” appointments with underage girls. In 2006, Palm Beach police were prepared to charge Kellen with a slate of felonies as part of their investigation into Epstein’s sex crimes.
Kellen has been mentioned in multiple lawsuits filed by victims. She was also mentioned in the testimony of Rizzo, who claimed Kellen took away the 15-year-old Swedish nanny’s passport and phone while they were on Epstein’s private island and handed them to Maxwell.
As we reported in March, Kellen may also have recently filed a lawsuit as a Jane Doe against Epstein’s estate. Kellen was 17 when she met Epstein, her spokeswoman told CNN last year, and was “cast out of the Jehovah’s Witness community in which she had been born and raised.” She “continues to struggle with the trauma of her experiences and has chosen not to speak publicly at this time,” the representative said.
Kellen, who is now married to NASCAR driver Brian Vickers, did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Lesley Groff
The 53-year-old mom and alleged co-conspirator (like Kellen, named in the plea deal) is mentioned in several survivors’ lawsuits against Epstein’s estate. Jennifer Araoz, who was raped by Epstein when she was 15 years old, claimed Groff scheduled his “massages.” A second suit, filed by Anastasia Doe, called Groff “one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most trusted employees” who scheduled the accuser’s visits to his Manhattan townhouse.
Another Jane Doe, believed to be Minor Victim-1 in the 2019 Epstein indictment, claimed “Kellen and Groff often asked Doe to bring other girls with her to Epstein’s home.”
Groff did not respond to a request for comment.
But her attorney, Michael Bacher, previously stated, “At no time during Lesley’s employment with Epstein did she ever engage in any misconduct.”
Nadia Marcinkova
The 35-year-old pilot and flight instructor once modeled for Brunel’s MC2 and was named as a co-conspirator in Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement. Marcinkova, who also goes by the last name Marcinko, was never charged by Palm Beach police, but cops identified her as someone who participated in sex acts with minors.
Indeed, one girl told investigators that Epstein “bragged he brought [Marcinkova] into the United States to be his Yugoslavian sex slave.”
Erica T. Dubno, an attorney for Marcinkova, previously told The Daily Beast: “Nadia is eager to join the other victims in speaking out about what she has endured. She wants to express her compassion and support to those who have also fallen prey to Jeffrey Epstein’s pathologically controlling and abusive behavior.
“Unfortunately, she is not yet able to comment publicly.”
“Nadia is eager to join the other victims in speaking out about what she has endured.”
Adriana Ross
The 36-year-old ex-model from Poland was also protected by Epstein’s plea deal and has never spoken publicly about Epstein. She’s kept a low profile in Florida with her husband, who seethed to a Daily Mail reporter: “You don’t know anything. It’s not for you to make a judgment. You don’t know anything about it.”
According to flight logs, Ross (who went by the last name Mucinska) was on Epstein’s private plane with former President Bill Clinton.
Epstein’s butler, Janusz Banasiak, claimed in a deposition that “Adriana” hauled computers out of Epstein’s Palm Beach home ahead of a 2005 search warrant. She also allegedly instructed Banasiak to pay girls visiting the house.
Ross did not respond to a request for comment.
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