Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred to New York to face charges that she recruited women and girls, one as young as 14, for him to sexually abuse, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed.

Prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule a Friday court appearance in Manhattan federal court for Maxwell, 58, who was arrested last week at a one million dollar estate she had purchased in New Hampshire.

Maxwell, the daughter of British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, was the former girlfriend and longtime close associate of Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail last August while he awaited trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell has been indicted on multiple charges, including that she conspired to entice girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein between 1994 and 1997.

She has denied wrongdoing and called claims against her “absolute rubbish”.

Epstein investigation
Prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule a Friday court appearance in Manhattan (PA)

In a letter to a judge on Sunday, prosecutors said they have communicated with Maxwell’s defence lawyer, Christian Everdell, who would like a Friday bail hearing where she will be arraigned.

Prosecutors have said Maxwell “poses an extreme risk of flight”.

Maxwell has three passports, is wealthy with lots of international connections, and has “absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence,” they wrote in a memo.

She is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.