Maxwell stole 'distressed' girl's passport and tried to make her have sex, billionaire's chef said
The billionaire investor Glenn Dubin’s private chef was left “in tears” as he gave evidence about Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, a new tranche of court papers released in New York claim.
The filings, from a 2015 defamation lawsuit by the Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, list evidence given by witnesses about sexual abuse perpetrated by Mr Epstein, and Ms Maxwell’s alleged involvement.
The release is the second tranche of documents to be released by a New York judge, who has decided to unseal previously confidential papers from the lawsuit for the first time.
In one document, Ms Giuffre’s lawyers make the point that Ms Maxwell should not be allowed to seek damages because of the seriousness of her alleged crimes.
They cite the witness testimony of Rinaldo Rizzo, who was working as a private chef to the billionaire investor Glenn Dubin and his wife at the time that Mr Epstein’s sexual abuse is alleged to have taken place.
Mr Dubin, a major hedge fund manager worth around $2.9 billion (£2.3 billion), has been previously accused of being a friend of Mr Epstein who young women were asked to have sex with.
“I’m telling you that Ghislaine told me to go to Glenn Dubin and give him a massage, which means sex,” Ms Giuffre has claimed.
In the filing, her lawyers say Mr Rizzo was reduced to tears as he gave evidence describing what had allegedly happened to young women working as massage therapists for Mr Epstein.
“One witness, Rinaldo Rizzo, was in tears as he recounted [Maxwell] bringing a 15-year-old girl to his employer’s home who, in utmost distress, told him that [Maxwell] stole the young girl’s passport and tried to make her have sex with Epstein, and then threatened her,” the document said.
Ms Giuffre’s attorney added: “Mr Rizzo also testified that he watched Maxwell direct a room full of underage girls to kiss, dance, and touch one another in a sexual way for [Maxwell] and Epstein to watch.”
Mr Rizzo was serving as Glenn Dubin’s private chef during the period Ms Giuffre said Epstein’s abuse took place.
Mr Dubin and his wife have always strongly denied any accusations of involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
“The Dubins strongly deny these allegations, as we first said in 2019, when these unsubstantiated statements first surfaced as part of this same civil court proceeding,” a spokesperson for the couple told the New York Post in response to the latest documents.
The latest tranche of documents adds around 300 pages to the 950-page release that was posted online by the court on Wednesday evening.
The documents have named several high-profile figures that have previously been connected to Mr Epstein, including Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton. Both have denied any knowledge of the deceased billionaire’s crimes.
The new papers released on Thursday largely focused on legal squabbles over Ms Giuffre’s lawsuit and her connection to a British tabloid reporter whom Ms Maxwell’s lawyers accused of compelling her to fabricate some of her allegations.
They also included a sworn deposition of Joseph Recarey, a detective in Palm Beach, Florida, who conducted an investigation into a network of between 30 and 33 women who had been recruited by Ms Maxwell and Mr Epstein, ostensibly to perform massages on him.
The women were paid for their attendance at his home and were encouraged with bonus payments to bring others, he said, but later discovered that the “massages” were a code for Mr Epstein’s sexual gratification.
He said the majority were under the age of 18 and were not masseuses.
Since the defamation trial that produced the documents, Ms Maxwell has been sentenced to twenty years in US prison for facilitating the sexual abuse of women by Mr Epstein.
Her attorneys said on Wednesday that she had “consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence,” and is appealing the conviction.
Mr Epstein himself died in his police cell shortly after his arrest on allegations of sexual abuse of minors in 2019.
Around 190 more documents are expected to be released in the coming days.