Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who traveled the Iditarod Trail by plane in 2014 with former Alaska Dispatch (Anchorage Daily News) owner Alice Rogoff, is now a convicted sex offender sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking of children with now-dead sexual deviant Jeffrey Epstein.
In December, a jury found Maxwell guilty on five counts of sex-trafficking. Maxwell had groomed and delivered young girls to Epstein, the millionaire financier and convicted sex offender who supposedly hanged himself in his jail cell in 2019.
Maxwell and former ADN owner Alice Rogoff were friends and colleagues back in the days when Rogoff owned and shaped the political landscape of the state, pushing Bill Walker into power as governor, and trying to get her hands on the Alaska Permanent Fund. Rogoff encouraged Walker to use the fund as collateral to borrow money for Alaska projects she was interested in, particularly around Port Clarence.
When Maxwell came to Alaska to spend time with Rogoff during the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in 2014, the year Walker became governor with the help of her newsroom, the two adventured across Alaska, as detailed a few days later in the New York Post’s Page Six gossip column, when it tracked Maxwell down at a soiree in New York City.
Maxwell lived a fast lifestyle and Rogoff and Maxwell both had interests in Arctic issues. Both presented themselves as Arctic experts, although neither had any true expertise.
“Maxwell traveled across hundreds of miles of icy wilderness to the finish line in Nome, where thousands of fans of ‘the last great race’ cheered on the mushers and their dogs,” the Post reported. They flew the race route in two of Rogoff’s private Cessna 206s. Three years later, Rogoff, who obtained her pilot’s license during her time in Alaska, crashed one of planes while visiting former Sen. Clem Tillion in Halibut Cove.
It appears Rogoff and Maxwell had become close a year earlier in Reykjavik, Iceland during the Arctic Assembly, a conference concerning Arctic Circle nations, attended by people like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Rogoff, who were featured speakers:
Soon, the Clinton Global Initiative made “commitment to action” to the TerraMar Project. Little evidence exists that it amounted to much, and Maxwell was not any sort of expert in the Arctic; she just had access to hundreds of thousands of dollars from public funds. Maxwell was an invited speaker in 2014 at the Council on Foreign Relations, again accepted as an expert on the ocean and the Arctic. Her TerraMar Project was little more than a scam, however.
The Department of Justice wrote on Tuesday of Maxwell’s actual area of expertise: Grooming young girls for sex.
“Today’s sentence holds Ghislaine Maxwell accountable for perpetrating heinous crimes against children. This sentence sends a strong message that no one is above the law and it is never too late for justice. We again express our gratitude to Epstein and Maxwell’s victims for their courage in coming forward, in testifying at trial, and in sharing their stories as part of today’s sentencing.”
According to the allegations in the indictment, court documents, and evidence presented at trial:
From at least 1994 until about 2004, Maxwell assisted, facilitated, and participated in Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18.
The victims were as young as 14 years old when they were groomed and abused by Maxwell and Epstein, both of whom knew that their victims were minors. As a part of the scheme to abuse minor victims, the two brought the children to Epstein’s residences in different states, which Maxwell knew and intended would result in their grooming for and subjection to sexual abuse.
Maxwell attempted to befriend certain victims by asking them about their lives, their schools, and their families, and taking them to the movies or on shopping trips. She also acclimated victims to Epstein’s conduct simply by being present for victim interactions with Epstein, which put victims at ease by providing the assurance and comfort of an adult woman who seemingly approved of Epstein’s behavior.
Additionally, Epstein offered to help some victims by paying for travel and/or educational opportunities, and MAXWELL encouraged certain victims to accept Epstein’s assistance. As a result, victims were made to feel indebted and believed that Maxwell and Epstein were trying to help them. Maxwell normalized and facilitated sexual abuse for a victim by discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when the victim was undressed, and encouraging the victim to massage Epstein.
The grooming behaviors left the victims vulnerable and susceptible to sexual abuse by Epstein. Maxwell was present for certain sexual encounters between minor victims and Epstein, such as interactions where a girl was undressed, and Maxwell was also present for sex acts perpetrated by Epstein on the girls, including sexualized massages during which a child was fully or partially nude, as well as group sexualized massages of Epstein involving a child, in the presence of Maxwell. In some instances, Maxwell participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims.
Ultimately minor victims were subjected to sexual abuse that included, among other things, the touching of a victim’s breasts or genitals, placing a sex toy such as a vibrator on a victim’s genitals, directing a victim to touch Epstein while he masturbated, and directing a victim to touch Epstein’s genitals. Maxwell and Epstein’s victims were groomed or abused at Epstein’s residences in New York, Florida, and New Mexico, as well as Maxwells residence in London, England.
In the earlier phase of the conspiracy, from at least approximately 1994 through approximately 2001, Maxwell and Epstein identified vulnerable girls, typically from single-mother households and difficult financial circumstances. This earlier phase required the defendant and Epstein to identify one girl at a time to target for grooming and abuse.
In the later phase, from approximately 2001 until at least approximately 2004, Maxwell and Epstein enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls to visit Epstein’s Palm Beach Residence to engage in sex acts with Epstein, after which Epstein, Maxwell or another employee of Epstein’s would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash.
Maxwell and Epstein encouraged one or more of those victims to travel with Epstein with the intention that the victim engage in sex acts with Epstein. Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, Maxwell and Epstein also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. In this way, Maxwell nd Epstein created a network of underage victims for Epstein to sexually exploit.
