Ghislaine Maxwell trial: What happened to the British socialite's TerraMar Project?
The coming Monday, November 29, will see the much-awaited trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. The British socialite was arrested in July 2020 from New Hampshire after being accused of pimping girls and young women to Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York.
Media mogul Robert Maxwell was the father of Ghislaine. He died in 1991 in Spain and it’s been said that he was the one who introduced his youngest child to Epstein -- the disgraced financier, who was facing sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Also, just weeks after Robert’s death, Ghislaine was seen with Epstein at a memorial event for her father.
RELATED ARTICLES
Ghislaine Maxwell: Who is the lead prosecutor in Epstein associate's trial?
Ghislaine Maxwell: Everything you need to know about Epstein's girlfriend's trial
During an interview with the ‘Broken: Seeking Justice’ podcast, Journalist Emily Saul while referring to an unearthed photograph said: “Shot at the Plaza Hotel during a memorial event for Robert Maxwell, the picture shows Ghislaine and Epstein in conversation. Wearing a blue silk jacket, Ghislaine smiles coyly at Epstein, who is seated to her right, wearing a white bowtie and an enormous grin. It doesn’t look like a first date.”
What happened to Ghislaine Maxwell's TerraMar Project?
Ghislaine is not only known as the daughter of Robert. She is also the founder of reportedly now-defunct -- the TerraMar Project, which was started in 2012. As per reports, the nonprofit was founded “to create a global ocean community to give a voice to the least protected, most ignored part of our planet - the high seas.”
But in 2019, after Epstein's arrest and associations between the two began to unravel, the organization also seemingly got wiped off by the waves of criticisms. Its website also appears to be taken down, but the official Instagram page is still there with more than 3000 followers. The bio of the account reads, “The TerraMar Project transforms the way people think about the ocean and value the seas. Explore our free news, education, and ocean actions today!” The last post shared on the social media platform was on July 11, 2019.
Before the apparent shut down of the TerraMar Project, Ghislaine had talked about it in an interview with CNN International in 2013. She said, “All citizens of the world are citizens of TerraMar, or citizens of the high seas, if you will, part of the global commons. You will get a digital passport with your name and your ID number, and we will - you will be able to follow the progress of the high seas, anything that happens significant on the high seas, now, you'll be able to find out what's going on.”
She added at the time: “We have a million and a half marine species, and you can select one to be the ambassador to TerraMar and be the spokesperson for that species. You can sponsor a piece of the ocean.” Also, a 2013 brief in the Manila Bulletin quoted Ghislaine saying, “Once the general public can understand ... that it is not just a big blue place where you go play on the beach, then it is possible to create a movement around it that will then empower politicians to take the incredibly difficult decisions that they need to make, but that are absolutely essential for the future of our planet.”