Virginia Giuffre’s family have claimed her estate is worth just over £233,000 as they enter a bitter legal fight over assets - raising questions as to what happened to the millions of pounds in settlement money she received from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Ms Giuffre, a prominent victim of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was thought to have received £16.5m in settlements and compensation for abuse she suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein.
The sum includes an estimated £9m she received to settle a claim she brought against Andrew.
The disgraced former Duke of York has always vehemently denied her claims against him. His payment came with no admission of liability.
Ms Giuffre, 41, died by suicide at her home in Western Australia in April without a will, and now her sons Christian, 19, and Noah, 18, have filed a claim in the Supreme Court of Western Australia stating that the estate is worth only £233,000.
The row over Ms Giuffre's estate began with a disagreement over who should be named administrators.
Christian and Noah successfully applied to the court to be appointed administrators, but are being challenged by Karrie Louden, Giuffre’s lawyer, and Cheryl Myers, her former housekeeper and carer.
Ms Louden and Ms Myers have claimed that as well as having possession of an informal will from Ms Giuffre, she had also verbally directed them to create a formal will in the weeks before she was found dead.
They said they were named as a “joint institute executor of the informal will” - but the brothers are rejecting the validity of Ms Giuffre’s purported final wishes, claiming that she was not mentally fit.
In an email to Lisa Foster at PwC in February, Ms Giuffre stated that she wanted her money to go to the children, with specific parameters, as well as to other family members.
They allege that Ms Giuffre did not have “testamentary capacity” from February until her death in April, and that Ms Louden and Ms Myers took advantage of being named as beneficiaries in the informal will.
At the time Ms Giuffre died on April 25, she was in the middle of divorce proceedings with Robert, her husband of 22 years, and there are reports he could attempt to receive the money himself.
Ms Giuffre alleged in her diary that Robert, 49, a former mixed martial arts instructor, had not worked since 2017 and was “living off money I was awarded as a victim of trafficking”.
According to newly released court documents, attorneys for Ms Giuffre’s sons claim the estate includes an amount held in a family trust, a ranch in Neergabby near Perth in Australia, two cars, a horse, jewellery and the potential rights to royalties from Nobody’s Girl, her posthumously published memoir.
Ms Louden and Ms Myers have filed a counterclaim suggesting the value exceeds what the sons are suggesting.
As well as the settlement with Andrew, Ms Giuffre was awarded money through the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Fund in 2020.
She won compensation in the range of £5.3million from Ghislaine Maxwell and JP Morgan, Epstein’s bank, which paid out a total of around £232million to the late sex offender’s victims as part of a class-action lawsuit.
The next hearing has been scheduled for February 13.
