Ghislaine Maxwell sued for $850,000 by her own legal team over unpaid fees and hiding multi-million fortune
DENVER, COLORADO: A law firm that defended Ghislaine Maxwell, the former socialite convicted of helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, is suing her for $850,000 in unpaid legal fees and is accusing her brother and estranged husband of hiding her multi-million wealth.
Maxwell's former attorneys at legal firm Haddon, Morgan & Foreman (HMF) filed a lawsuit on Monday, August 22, which alleges that the former socialite gave her brother Kevin Maxwell responsibility for paying her legal bills after she got arrested in 2020, but he paid only a fraction of what they were owed for representing her in the sex-trafficking case. Later Kevin urged the attorneys to keep working on appeal issues and blamed her estranged husband Scott Borgerson for getting in the way of making payments, according to the lawsuit filed in Denver.
RELATED ARTICLES
Ghislaine Maxwell asked women to strip and let men grope them in SEX game, claims party guest
Ghislaine Maxwell: Everything you need to know about Epstein's girlfriend's trial
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on five out of six counts in 2021 after FBI brought down serious charges on her for enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls, related to her association with the late pedophile Jeffery Epstein. She was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and is currently serving her sentence at a prison in Tallahassee, Florida.
#GhislaineMaxwell’s lawyers are suing her, her brother Kevin and her estranged husband #ScottBorgenson over legal bills and claim she’s hidden assets! pic.twitter.com/nkVd7PtrSg
— Prince.&.The.Pervert.Podcast (@ohreallytruly) August 24, 2022
However, in their filling, lawyers at the small Colorado-based firm HMF, say they soon "developed concerns about Ms Maxwell's willingness and ability to meet her financial obligations." In their court filing, they said, "Based on developments during the first few weeks of the engagement, HMF developed concerns regarding the representation, including HMF's role in the case and Ms Maxwell's willingness and ability to meet her financial obligations."
The lawyers claimed they requested a $250,000 retainer before the trial began in 2021. Half of the amount was quickly paid by her brother but when the legal team emailed him regarding the outstanding amount, he ignored it. Later in 2021, he fell far behind the actual payment and instead made a "handful of sporadic payments," HMF says in its filing to a court in Denver.
HMF says they asked her brother for a larger $1 million retainer during her trial in November 2021 but even that retainer went unpaid. Tired of Kevin’s excuses, the two lawyers threatened to end her representation on November 5. Kevin Maxwell responded to their threat by reiterating 'the commitment we as a family have made to honor the fees due and requested by you both in good faith and as a binding commitment', the filing claims. The filing adds: "HMF, relying on Mr Maxwell's commitment, continued to devote all necessary resources to Ms Maxwell's defense."
Further, the firm again raised alarms when Kevin failed to make payments but he promised he will surely pay them soon. "In reality, Mr. Maxwell had no present intention of doing so," HMF writes. The lawyers revealed by the end of her trial in December 2021, Maxwell had racked up $950,000 worth of overdue legal fees to HMF out of which her brother paid only $143,500 to the firm and the rest is yet to be paid by her side.
In the filing, the law firm said Kevin repeatedly told them that Ghislaine’s estranged husband Scott Borgerson holds control over Maxwell’s assets and is getting in the way of their payment. HMF claimed that her husband has set up two companies, reportedly using her assets and bought properties in Boston, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, to hide her wealth from the firm and public eyes.
Lawyers at HMF are also suing Borgerson for "wrongfully encumbering Ms Maxwell's assets, joint marital assets, and/or assets committed to funding her defense, impairing her ability to perform her obligations." They say he and Maxwell "shared the motive of protecting those assets from creditors including HMF. HMF is therefore entitled to a judgment for one and one-half the value of the assets transferred or one-and-one-half the amount necessary to satisfy its claim against Ms Maxwell, whichever is less," the filing says.