Thelife
- Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam, donated money to a charity for sex trafficking victims in 2008, according to tax documents reviewed by Business Insider.
- Maxwell is accused of helping organize a network of victims for convicted sex offender Epstein, who died in jail awaiting sex trafficking charges.
- Tax filings show that in 2008, Maxwell donated $350 to Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, a charity with a stated mission of ending commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and young women.
- Maxwell also made donations to a New York chapter of Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Hale House, which at the time was a famous New York City orphanage.
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Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite accused of being Jeffrey Epstein's madam and setting up a network of victims and abusing them alongside the convicted sex offender, donated money in 2008 to a charity for sex trafficking victims, according to tax documents reviewed by Business Insider.
Tax filings show that Maxwell donated $350 to Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS), a charity created "to give the girls and young women of NYC who had been commercially sexually exploited a place for support and a place to create positive change in their lives," according to its website.
Maxwell made the donation through her private foundation, Max Foundation Tr.
The charity's stated mission is to end commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and young women. GEMS' website says it offers its members educational support, women's youth development, transitional and supportive housing, and court advocacy.
When reached by email, GEMS founder and CEO Rachel Lloyd told Business Insider they could not find a record of the donation, noting that it was for less than $500 and that they had changed donor databases since 2008.
"We would never knowingly accept monies from anyone who was working against [our] mission," Lloyd said. "We fully support all the victims who have been brave enough to come forward against Jeffrey Epstein and hope that they will still be able to find a measure of justice from those [who] perpetuated his crimes."
Tax filings show that Maxwell's other donations through her foundation include $275 in 2011 to the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, a chapter of Boys & Girls Clubs of America that provides after-school programs for under-resourced youth in New York City; and in 2007, $300 to Hale House, a New York charity that took in homeless infants and toddlers. In 2008, Hale House ended its residential program and became a daycare service known as the Mother Hale Learning Center.
The tax filings also show that Maxwell donated $2,500 to the Clinton Library and Foundation in 2003, as well as at least $1,625 between 2003 and 2008 to the Wayuu Taya Foundation, a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of Latin American indigenous communities.
According to tax filings, between 2002 and 2018, Maxwell's foundation held an average of about $20,000 in total assets each year and appeared to be used to make a few small donations per year, possibly to purchase tickets to some of the fundraisers and charity galas at which she was often photographed.
The foundation's total recorded assets peaked in the tax year ending in June 2003 at $42,947, according to available tax filings. By 2018, that number had dwindled to $1,245.
After Epstein's death in a Manhattan jail on August 10, Maxwell could become the new focus of the sex trafficking and conspiracy case. The 57-year-old British socialite has been accused for years of being Epstein's top accomplice, allegedly recruiting victims and participating in their abuse.
Read more: What to know about British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's alleged madam
Maxwell's donation to the sex trafficking charity in 2008 came two-and-a-half months before Epstein pleaded guilty to two state charges in Florida: one count of solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18. He served 13 months in a work-release program.
Maxwell's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.