Federal authorities knew for months where alleged Jeffrey Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell was hiding out — but couldn’t arrest her in an underage sex-trafficking scheme until Thursday thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Investigators spent months tracking the movements of Maxwell, 58, and knew that she used an LLC to mask her December purchase of a rural hideout in the tiny New Hampshire town of Bradford, where she was nabbed by FBI agents, sources said.
The arrest followed a recent interview with one of Maxwell’s alleged victims in London, sources said.
That meeting had been set for an earlier date, but had to be postponed when the pandemic struck, sources said.
A six-count indictment against Maxwell was filed under seal in Manhattan federal court on Monday, records show, and it was unsealed following her arrest.
The charging document details crimes against three victims under the age of 18, including one — identified only as “Minor Victim-3” — whom Maxwell allegedly “groomed and befriended” in London between 1994 and 1995.
Maxwell “encouraged” the girl to “provide massages to Epstein in London, England, knowing that Epstein intended to sexually abuse Minor Victim-3 during those massages,” the indictment alleges.
Maxwell — daughter of the late, disgraced British press baron Robert Maxwell — owns a townhouse in London’s high-priced Belgravia neighborhood, but hasn’t been seen there in as much as 10 years, according to reports.