A New York judge on Monday ordered the disclosure in early January of 180 names of people – victims, relatives, alleged accomplices – linked to the network of American financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex crimes but who committed suicide in prison in 2019 have before they are sentenced.
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This December 18 order by Manhattan Federal Court Judge Loretta Preska, consulted by AFP on Tuesday, is part of a defamation case between Mr. Epstein's ex-lover and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 was convicted, and an American plaintiff against the couple, Virginia Giuffre.
The judge listed the cases of some 180 people in a 50-page document – by numbers and the pseudonym “Doe” – and ordered that their identities be made public “in full” no later than 14 days from the date of that court document. either January 1st or 2nd, 2024.
According to the British media Daily News, which published the information on Tuesday, Virginia Giuffre's libel lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell dates back to 2016 and was settled the following year.
But the Miami Herald newspaper then took civil action to gain access to the file and investigate the Epstein network.
The financier was arrested in 2019.
AFP
To justify the disclosure of names – including those of personalities already quoted in the press – the American judiciary relies on the fact that certain people are easily identifiable in interviews published in recent years.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein dated in the early 1990s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in their sex crimes for nearly 30 years.
The 61-year-old former British, French and American socialite was convicted in New York in December 2021 of sex trafficking of minors on behalf of Mr Epstein and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022.
The financier, who has strong business and political networks in the United States and abroad, was himself accused of sexually abusing and raping young girls, but his suicide by hanging in a New York prison in August 2019 nullified public complaints against him .
In another aspect of this international affair, in February 2022, Britain's Prince Andrew, friend of the Maxwell-Epstein couple, sealed an amicable settlement – worth $13 million, according to the Daily Telegraph – with 40-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who accused him in In 2001, when she was 17, she was sexually assaulted.
The disgraced 63-year-old prince denies these allegations.