Disgraced RI socialite strikes up jailhouse friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell, tabloid says
PROVIDENCE – East Greenwich socialite Monique Brady, who swindled millions of dollars from friends and family, has made a new buddy behind bars: convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell – at least according to the American news site Daily Mail.
The site reported that the two had “struck up a firm friendship” at a federal correctional facility In Tallahassee. Florida.
Maxwell, 61, also a disgraced former socialite, is serving 20 years in prison for her part in helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploit and abuse minor girls.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell in 2020 sentenced Brady, 48, to eight years behind bars for crimes that included wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and obstructing an IRS investigation for her efforts to cover-up her Ponzi-like real estate investment scheme the judge called beyond belief. She is due to be released in April 2024.
The tabloid relied on unnamed sources at FCI Tallahassee to detail the budding friendship.
“They are both former socialites who were accustomed to the high life and now find themselves languishing in prison, so it's not a surprise that Mo and Max have become friends,” the tabloid quoted a source to say, continuing “Mo is also very secretive, she loves to complain about prison and she hates the media for writing about her case. They have a lot in common.”
Friends: Brady used charm, charisma to swindle
A grand jury indicted Brady in May 2019 in a scheme that authorities said spanned 2014 through 2018 and ensnared close family friends, a law school classmate, her stepbrother, a former nanny, a man with Alzheimer’s disease, and business associates from coast to coast.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln Almond ordered her held amid allegations that she attempted to flee prosecution by purchasing a one-way flight to her native Vietnam with her divorce lawyer and paramour at the time, Kevin D. Heitke, as investigators closed in. Two days before her arrest, she served her husband of 21 years, Warwick firefighter Lt. Thomas Brady, with whom she shares four children, with divorce papers.
More: E. Greenwich scam suspect ordered held amid claim she tried to flee country with lover
Friends and associates described Brady as a woman who used her charisma and intelligence to convince people to invest money, in some cases their life savings, in rehabilitation projects that didn't exist. She used the money instead to pay for lavish vacations, elective plastic surgery, play as a high-roller gambler at casinos, and to pay the mortgage on the Bradys’ $1.1-million home.
The investors included a stepbrother in California; a West Warwick woman who lost money dedicated to future care for her paraplegic husband; a firefighter who worked with her then husband; and a man managing his grandmother’s trust account, according to court records and federal prosecutors.
Judge McConnell ordered Brady to pay as restitution the $4.8 million she stole from her 23 victims.
In 2020, McConnell rejected her request for early release amid the COVID pandemic. The judge cited Brady's history of "destructively manipulative behavior" that left the court without confidence that she would abide by restrictions imposed upon her if she were released.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Ghislaine Maxwell friends with RI socialite in prison, Daily Mail reports
