Manhattan Acting Prosecutor Audrey Strauss Announced The Arrest Of Jeffrey Epstein's Former Partner Ghislaine Maxwell And Charged With Trafficking In Minors On July 2, 2020. - John Minchillo / AP / SIPA

From our correspondent in the United States,

The hide-and-seek game is over. Almost a year to the day after the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein, his ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was arrested by the FBI on the East Coast of the United States on Thursday. She was charged with four charges of sex trafficking minors and "perjury", and was to be brought before a judge that day. Maxwell "helped Jeffrey Epstein to sexually exploit several underage girls between 1994 and 1997, and, in some cases, participated in the abuse," said acting Manhattan attorney Audrey Strauss. In the event of conviction, Maxwell risks life imprisonment for the charge of "hijacking minors in an organized gang for the purpose of participating in illegal sexual acts".

According to the indictment obtained by 20 Minutes, Ghislaine Maxwell is charged with 6 charges, including "embezzlement of minors in an organized gang for the purpose of participating in illegal sexual acts". Accused of having "participated in sexual abuse" on a 14-year-old girl pic.twitter.com/TwR2RyfHEK

- Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) July 2, 2020

While the British tabloids said it was hidden either Brazil or Paris, it is therefore in Bradford, a rural commune of 1,500 inhabitants of New Hampshire, 150 km north of Boston, that Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested Thursday morning. According to the FBI, she lived in a "luxurious home" and was arrested without incident. Maxwell had not been seen in public since the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein, except for what seems to have been a scene in a Los Angeles fast food restaurant in August 2019, a few days after the financier's suicide American.

"Gained confidence" of young girls

Born in Maisons-Laffitte, the daughter of British media magnate Robert Maxwell and a French academic is accused of playing recruiters for Epstein. According to the prosecutor, Ghislaine Maxwell "won the trust" of three young girls, including two of 14 and 15 years old, and "lured them into the trap that she and Jeffrey Epstein had set".

She was the one who approached the victims, then took them to the movies or shopping. The duo targeted “vulnerable” high school girls, and, by paying for their education or travel, made sure they felt indebted. "The presence of an adult woman put the victims at ease," said the prosecutor. According to her, the “sexualized massages” in the financier's residences in Manhattan, in Florida in New Mexico, as well as in the home of Ghislaine Maxwell in London, have turned into “sexual acts”.

American justice wants to hear Prince Andrew

The prosecutor warned: the investigation against possible accomplices continues. And according to lawyer Spencer Kuvin, who represents several victims, the Frenchman Jean-Luc Brunel can be worried. "There is no doubt, like Ghislaine Maxwell, he supplied underage girls to Jeffrey Epstein" via his modeling agency "and must answer for them in justice," he said at 20 Minutes .

The American authorities also wish to hear Prince Andrew. One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, claims to have been forced to have sex with the Duke of York when she was 17, which he denies. According to Spencer Kuvin, "with his diplomatic immunity, only political pressure could force him to testify".

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