Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly butted heads with neighbours in Massachusetts town
Ghislaine Maxwell
Following on from the news that Ghislaine Maxwell has been denied bail – and will stay in detention for a year ahead of her trial next summer – further revelations about the former socialite’s activities in recent years have come to light.
According to the Times, Maxwell and Scott Borgerson, an American tech CEO and shipping entrepreneur, previously purchased a house together in Massachusetts. The pair are said to have lived there for some years until the arrest of Maxwell’s former boyfriend, the late American financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, prompted her to go into hiding.
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The information is reportedly disclosed in property and court records, first brought to light in the Daily Mail. The documents also reveal that neighbours became embroiled in a legal dispute with Borgerson and Maxwell, over access to a beach on the private estate where they had their house. The documents offer new insight into Maxwell and Borgerson’s relationship – following the revelation that a prosecutor told the court in New York that Maxwell was married, but had refused to disclose the identity of her husband.
One Manchester-by-the-Sea neighbour told the Times: ‘They were a couple, they lived together… His kids lived with his ex-wife in Rockport [a nearby town] and spent time with them.’ The neighbour reportedly added that Borgerson ‘was asking about babysitters, that kind of thing.’
Planning records reveal an application for renovations to the property, made in July 2016 by Borgerson and ‘Jennifer Ellmax’ – a surname also used as the title for Maxwell’s companies, and in an email address linked to a former home of Maxwell’s in New York. A former coastguard, Borgerson was listed for a time as a director of Maxwell’s oceanic foundation, the TerraMar Project.
Former friends of Maxwell’s have suggested that Borgerson is the most likely candidate for her unknown spouse. Christopher Mason, a British journalist who was acquainted with Maxwell in New York, is quoted as stating: ‘The fact that he was passionate about saving the oceans and Ghislaine had that foundation makes it a good fit’.
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Another Massachusetts neighbour is quoted as saying: ‘The thing that I thought about both her and Scott was that they were pretty darned impressed with themselves… He had this business, she had done a presentation on the oceans in front of the United Nations but I had no idea who she was.’ The neighbour believes that Maxwell introduced herself as ‘Max’, and recalled that she ‘went to give a presentation at [Borgerson’s] children’s school... to talk about the oceans… Can you imagine what it was like for people to find out that a woman with that pedigree was in their school?’
A resident of the private estate previously told the Daily Mail that a legal dispute over access to the beach began when locals became aware of Maxwell’s past – and lawsuits alleging that she was involved in recruiting and grooming young girls for Epstein to abuse. The source stated that neighbours ‘were absolutely appalled to learn who they were allowing to have the run of their property,’ adding: ‘The second they learnt she was involved with Epstein they decided to try to limit how much they could use their land.’
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
Prosecutors have alleged that Maxwell used the name ‘Jen’ while buying the luxury property in Bradford, New Hampshire, where she was arrested earlier this month, on 2 July. Maxwell is facing six charges related to her links to Epstein. Four of the charges allege that she groomed girls as young as 14 to be sexually abused by Epstein between 1994 and 1997; the further two charges claim that she committed perjury when denying knowledge of Epstein’s abuse in a 2016 deposition.
If found guilty of all charges, Maxwell could face a prison sentence of 35 years. At her first US court hearing last week, she pleaded not guilty to all six charges.
The Times reported that Borgerson could not be reached for comment.
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