Now that Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted of helping procure underage girls for abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, the question remains as to what will happen for the rest of Epstein’s victims as well as his powerful associates and others who may have helped facilitate the abuse. Here are five civil cases that are still in federal court against Epstein’s estate and associates.
Virginia Giuffre v. Alan Dershowitz
In 2019, Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre sued Alan Dershowitz, a prominent lawyer, for defamation. She said he sexually assaulted her multiple times while she was as young as 16 and being sex-trafficked by Epstein — whom she claimed in the complaint “lent [her] out” to have sex with other men — and that he then called her a liar when she went public with the allegations. Dershowitz denied the claims and countersued Giuffre, saying her allegations were “lies, disparagement, defamation, harassment,” and that she’d been pressured by her lawyers to make false accusations against him (accusations which, themselves, drew their own defamation suit from Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies).
The Giuffre/Dershowitz suit will also feature a bit of a cameo from longtime Epstein associate, retail billionaire Leslie Wexner. Back in November, the judge overseeing the case ruled that Wexner would have to sit for a deposition because in his counter-suit, Dershowitz accused Giuffre of making false claims about him in an effort to squeeze money out of Wexner. Per Bloomberg, the deposition — during which lawyers were allowed to ask Wexner if he had sex with Giuffre — was scheduled to take place Dec. 17, but the judge also ruled that Wexner’s answers would be sealed. At the time, Wexner’s lawyer said the deposition would be short because Wexner would state he didn’t know Giuffre. The lawyer also accused Dershowitz’s defense team of using Wexner “as a prop.”
On Wednesday, the BBC called Dershowitz to comment on the Maxwell verdict, without acknowledging the accusation or his prior status as one of Epstein’s attorneys. He used the opportunity to point out that Giuffre had not been called as a witness in Maxwell’s criminal trial, and to suggest this was because she is untruthful. “The government was very careful who it used as witnesses,” Dershowitz said, before referring — unprompted — to his connection to the case. “It did not use as a witness the woman who accused Prince Andrew, accused me, accused many other people, because the government didn’t believe she was telling the truth.” The news organization released a statement walking back the segment after it aired. “Mr. Dershowitz was not a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst, and we did not make the relevant background clear to our audience,” the statement said in part.
Virginia Giuffre v. Prince Andrew
In the wake of the Maxwell verdict, many are looking to Giuffre’s civil case against Prince Andrew as the next possible step towards justice for Epstein’s and Maxwell’s victims. Giuffre sued Andrew in August 2021, claiming the British Royal raped and sexually abused her on multiple occasions when she was 17, when she had been “lent out” by Epstein to Andrew for “sexual purposes.” Giuffre claims Andrew is responsible for “battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Andrew has denied the accusations and claimed he has “no recollection” of meeting Giuffre, despite a photograph showing him with his arm around Giuffre’s waist while Maxwell stands nearby. In a 2019 interview, Andrew suggested the photo could have been faked.
On Wednesday, the judges overseeing Giuffre’s cases against Andrew and Dershowitz jointly ruled that a 2009 settlement agreement between Giuffre and Epstein, which bears directly on the case against Andrew, would be unsealed in the new year.
Earlier this week, Andrew tried to claim Giuffre could not sue him in U.S. federal court because she now lives in Australia. On Friday, the judge ruled that discovery would move forward anyway.
Priscilla Doe v. HBRK Associates
Using the pseudonym Priscilla Doe, one Epstein accuser sued the financier’s estate in 2019, then turned down a settlement from the victims’ compensation fund in 2020. Priscilla opted to instead continue her civil case against Epstein’s estate, wherein she claimed Epstein abused her from 2006 to 2012, starting when she was 20. She claimed she was recruited to massage an older man for pay while she was working “menial jobs” to pay for ballet training in New York. Epstein sexually assaulted her during the massages, she said, and took her virginity against her will. On a trip to the Virgin Islands, Priscilla said Maxwell taught her the “proper way to give a blow job” to Epstein. Her suit mentioned Jean Luc Brunel being on the trip to the Virgin Islands, and serving hors d’oeuvres at a party attended by Woody Allen.
In June, Doe filed an amended complaint that contained accusations against a corporate entity known as HBRK Associates, Inc., which at one time was registered to Richard Kahn, another Epstein associate who worked as his accountant and the co-executer of his estate. The complaint alleged that HBRK employees aided Epstein by warning victims how powerful he was in an alleged effort to keep them from speaking with police or filing civil lawsuits. The suit also stated the HBRK kept “damaging files on many of the young female victims” and “stored large amounts of cash in its offices to ensure that there were funds available to pay and silence victims of Epstein at any given time.” (A lawyer for Epstein’s estate denied the allegations to The Daily Beast at the time).
Not long after the amended complaint was filed, a motion to dismiss Doe’s suit was filed, though there still hasn’t been a ruling on that.
Russian Jane Doe v. Epstein Estate
In an October 2021 class action lawsuit, a Russian national sued Epstein’s estate, alleging that when she was in college in 2017, she had responded to a job posting for a personal assistant, only to be forced into a sexualized massage when she met with Epstein in Paris for what was supposed to be an interview.
The suit initially named Epstein assistant Lesley Groff as a defendant, as well. The complaint claimed Groff had assisted and facilitated her alleged trafficking and abuse by “purchasing plane tickets, sending money, making appointments, and sending various communications from New York.” On Wednesday, Dec. 29, however, Jane dismissed the case against Groff. Mariann Wang, a lawyer for Jane, confirmed the dismissal and the continuation of the case against Epstein’s estate, but declined to comment further.
Caroline Kaufman v. Epstein Estate
Caroline Kaufman sued the Epstein estate for $500 million in July 2020, claiming Epstein raped her in December 2010, when she was 17 years old, at his Manhattan home during a fake modeling interview. In her suit, Kaufman said she met Epstein through his associate, Susan Hamblin, who approached her at a horse show in Lake Placid, New York and allegedly told her that Epstein could help her get into the modeling industry (Kaufman was 16 when Hamblin first approached her). Kaufman finally did agree to a “modeling interview” with Epstein, and she claimed that when she arrived at Epstein’s home, she was introduced to several people, including Prince Andrew. Kaufman claimed a woman she believed to be Ghislaine Maxwell took nude photos of her, then she was told to put on a bikini and was taken into a massage room where Epstein was naked. Epstein, the suit claims, then brutally attacked and raped Kaufman while she screamed for help. Afterwards, Hamblin allegedly paid Kaufman $500 and threatened to kill her and her family if she said anything.
About a month after Kaufman filed her suit, however, the case was stayed, and there’s been no activity on the docket since September 2020 (these were just “pro hac vice” motions, which have to do with adding lawyers to cases in jurisdictions where they may not be licensed to practice). Lawyers for Kaufman did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment and an update on the case.