Wealthy financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is facing sex-trafficking charges related to allegedly running a sex trafficking ring — and his recent arrest highlights his status as a former socialite who reportedly counted Prince Andrew as a close friend.
Epstein and Andrew were reportedly introduced in the 1990s by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's then-girlfriend, according to a 2015 Guardian report.
The men reportedly sparked a close friendship, which came back to haunt the British royal in 2011, when he had to step down from his position as the special UK representative for trade due to criticisms over their close relationship.
At the time, a woman named Virginia Roberts Giuffre had given an interview to The Daily Mail claiming Epstein forced her into sex slavery in 1998, when she was a 15-year-old working as a changing room assistant at Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago beach club. She mentioned Andrew in the interview, but did not suggest there were any sexual relations between the two of them.
But court documents obtained by The Guardian in 2015 alleged that Epstein forced Roberts Giuffre "to have sexual relations" on three separate occasions with "a member of the British Royal Family, Prince Andrew (a/k/a Duke of York)."
According to the court documents obtained by The Guardian, the sexual encounters took place when Roberts Giuffre was 17, and she was instructed to "give the prince whatever he required."
"Epstein's purposes in 'lending' Jane Doe (along with other young girls) to such powerful people were to ingratiate himself with them for business, personal, political, and financial gain, as well as to obtain potential blackmail information," the court documents said.
Buckingham Palace has never denied a friendship between Epstein and Andrew, but has repeatedly denied he had sexual relations with Roberts Giuffre, the Mercury News reported.
Buckingham Palace officials told The Guardian in 2015 that the allegations against Andrew were "false and without any foundation."
Andrew was never charged with any crimes. He is still a close part of the royal family, and met with Trump during the president's tour of London's Westminster Abbey in June.
Epstein, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges on Thursday. The 66-year-old is accused of abusing dozens of underage girls as young at 14 and could face up to 45 years in prison.
- Read more:
- Prosecutors want to seize financier Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion where they say he trafficked teenage girls for sexual encounters
- Investigators say they found 'hundreds' of nude photos of girls in Jeffrey Epstein's New York City mansion
- Unsealed court documents reveal that financier Jeffrey Epstein is being charged with running a sex-trafficking ring involving girls as young as 14
- Meet Jeffrey Epstein, the financier reportedly arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking who's rubbed elbows with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Kevin Spacey
