Ghislaine Maxwell, the former partner of globetrotting financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will soon face her fate.
The jetsetting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires will be sentenced on Tuesday local time for helping her then-boyfriend abuse girls between 1994 and 2004.
If the prosecutors get their way, she could face between 30 and 55 years in prison.
Here's what we know about the long-running case.
Maxwell was part of Epstein's inner circle
Raised in Oxford in the UK, the 60-year-old is the daughter of the late Robert Maxwell, a British media magnate, who founded a publishing house and owned tabloids such as the Daily Mirror.
After moving to New York in the early 1990s to work in real estate, she began her romantic relationship with Epstein, a financier who lived in lavish style and attended high-society parties.
Epstein considered her to be a longtime member of his inner circle, describing her as his "best friend" in a 2003 Vanity Fair article.
In 2019, he took his life in a New York jail cell where he was being held without bail on sex-trafficking charges.
The 66-year-old former hedge fund manager was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York.
Maxwell was found guilty of luring girls for Epstein
Epstein’s death led to further investigations into Maxwell. And in 2020 — after months spent seemingly flying under the radar — she was arrested during a raid on her secluded New Hampshire mansion.
She was formally charged with facilitating the sex-trafficking operation, and during a month-long trial late last year, the court heard sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls at Epstein’s palatial homes.
After five days of deliberations, a jury found her guilty of five of the six charges.
Where is Maxwell now?
She is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.
Last week, Maxwell was placed on suicide watch after she reported being threatened by jail staff, prompting her lawyers to ask for a delay to her sentencing.
Prosecutors argued no delay was needed because Maxwell had her legal documents and could get the same amount of sleep.
"Given the defendant's inconsistent accounts … the chief psychologist assesses the defendant to be at additional risk of self-harm, as it appears she may be attempting to be transferred to a single cell where she can engage in self-harm," prosecutors said in a court filing.
Maxwell could die in prison
In written arguments, prosecutors have asked for the British socialite to serve between 30 years and 55 years in prison.
Describing her crimes as "monstrous", they said Maxwell left her victims "permanently scarred with emotional and psychological injuries".
Lawyers for Maxwell have submitted that the 60-year-old should spend no more than five years in prison because Epstein had been the mastermind and principal abuser — a suggestion rejected by prosecutors, who have described her role as "instrumental".
ABC/wires
