'G Max': How Ghislaine Maxwell used numerous bank accounts and aliases to avoid detection

The vast wealth and jet-setting life of Ghislaine Maxwell have been laid out in court documents which claim she tried to evade detection in the last year by switching a phone number and using the nickname "G Max".

A US government investigation into her finances found that she had 15 different bank accounts between 2016 and the present day, sometimes moving huge sums of money between them.

Miss Maxwell had three different passports and had taken at least 15 different international flights in the last three years, including to Britain, Japan and Qatar, according to prosecutors.  She was also alleged to have received more than $20 million from Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced late financier and her former partner, between 2007 and 2011.

The details - which Miss Maxwell has not yet responded to - were contained in a court filing from attorneys at the Southern District of New York after charges were announced on Thursday.

Miss Maxwell stands accused of helping acquire underage victims, one as young as 14, for her partner Epstein to sexually abuse during the mid-1990s.

She was arrested in the tiny town of Bradford, New Hampshire, and charged with six counts, including trafficking underage people for sexual exploitation and perjury. She has plead not guilty to all charges.

The whereabouts of Miss Maxwell, daughter of the late media proprietor Robert Maxwell, had been unknown since Epstein was himself charged in last July. He later died in prison.

However a court filing signed by Audrey Strauss, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, offers a glimpse into Miss Maxwell’s life in recent years.

In arguing that Miss Maxwell posed an “extreme risk of flight” and should be detained the prosecutors included new information gleaned from their investigation in the filing.

“The defendant appears to have significant financial resources that would enable her flight from prosecution”,  the court filing argued.

It claimed 15 different bank accounts “held by or associated with” Miss Maxwell between 2016 and the present day had been discovered.

The total balances of those accounts ranged from hundreds of thousands of dollars to more than $20 million, prosecutors said.

Sometimes huge amounts of money were switched between accounts, with half a million dollars being moved in March 2019 and $300,000 being moved in July 2019.

Financial connections between Epstein and Miss Maxwell were also discovered.

More than $20 million was moved from accounts associated with Epstein to accounts associated with Miss Maxwell between 2007 and 2011, according to the court filing.

Millions of dollars were later transferred back to Epstein accounts.

Prosecutors also outlined what they called the “transient nature” of Miss Maxwell’s current lifestyle, claiming that she had “effectively been in hiding” for a year.

The filing claimed Miss Maxwell had been “hiding out in locations in New England” - the state in which she was eventually arrested - and “made intentional efforts to avoid detection”.

These included moving location at least twice and switching her email address and primary phone number, which she registered under the name “G Max”.

She was also said to have ordered packages for delivery with a different person listed on the shipping label.

“The defendant appears to have no ties that would motivate her to remain in the United States,” one part of the court filing read.

“She has no children, does not reside with any immediate family members, and does not appear to have any employment that would require her to remain in the United States.”

Miss Maxwell was said to have three passports - one each from France, where she was born, Britain, where she was raised, and America, where she became a citizen in 2002.

In 2016, Miss Maxwell appears to have sold a New York City residence for $15 million through a limited liability company, according to the filing.

Yet the full breadth of Miss Maxwell’s finances was unclear even to government investigators, who admitted they remained uncertain about its true scale.

“In short, the defendant’s financial resources appear to be substantial, and her numerous accounts and substantial money movements render her total financial picture opaque and indeterminate, even upon a review of bank records available to the Government,” read one line.

Added together, prosecutors argued, Miss Maxwell’s wealth, lack of ties to America and willingness to take flights abroad meant that they could not guarantee she would not flee the country unless she was detained.

Getting Miss Maxwell to just wear an electronic tag would be “inadequate”, the prosecutors said, arguing that would “merely reduce her head start should she decide to flee".