London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 29, 2025

Ghislaine Maxwell is being sued by her attorneys' firm for more than $878,000 in unpaid legal fees

Ghislaine Maxwell is being sued by her attorneys' firm for more than $878,000 in unpaid legal fees

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's former confidante now serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking, is being sued for more than $878,000 in unpaid legal fees by a law firm representing her, according to court documents.

Two lawyers from the firm, Jeffrey Pagliuca and Laura Menninger, were lead attorneys on Maxwell's defense team during her trial last year that ended in a conviction for her role in facilitating Epstein's abuse of minor girls.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday by the law firm Haddon, Morgan and Foreman in county court in Denver, Colorado, also names her brother Kevin Maxwell and her estranged husband Scott Borgerson as defendants.

According to the suit, Ghislaine Maxwell told her attorneys after she was incarcerated in 2020 that her brother Kevin would coordinate the financial aspects of her defense. The firm has continually threatened to stop representing Maxwell beginning in 2020 after legal fees continued to go unpaid, the lawsuit says.

Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, grew up in the idyllic Oxfordshire countryside and is the daughter of Robert Maxwell -- a Czech-born newspaper tycoon and former British lawmaker who died under mysterious circumstances. The media magnate fell off his luxury yacht -- called "Lady Ghislaine" -- near the Canary Islands in 1991. He was posthumously discovered to have committed massive pension fraud against his employees.

In the days and weeks leading up to the start of Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal trial, her lawyers were threatening to withdraw representation as her brother reassured them repeatedly that he'd get them the money, the lawsuit says. He also told them not to worry Ghislaine with the matter because she "lacked the ability to impact funding," the lawsuit says.

Kevin Maxwell has made "a handful of sporadic payments" over the years, the last one in January for more than $141,000, but the law firm says the account was never paid current and that's a "small fraction" of what's owed for Ghislaine Maxwell's defense.

Kevin Maxwell did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

Borgerson controlled Ghislaine Maxwell's money as the marriage dissolved and has in part been responsible for delaying payments to the firm, the lawsuit says. CNN reached out to Borgerson for comment.

The lawsuit also alleges that before the couple broke up Maxwell and her then-husband attempted to shield her assets in real estate in limited liability companies to protect her assets from creditors like the law firm.

Haddon, Morgan and Foreman has represented Maxwell since 2015, beginning with a lawsuit filed by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre and other civil matters related to Epstein's abuse.

Maxwell was convicted on five counts, including sex trafficking a minor, last December and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

During her trial, prosecutors argued Maxwell and Epstein conspired to set up a scheme to lure young girls into sexual relationships with Epstein in New York, Florida, New Mexico and the US Virgin Islands. Four women testified that Epstein abused them and that Maxwell facilitated the abuse and sometimes participated in it.

Maxwell's attorneys filed an appeal of the conviction last month. She is serving her sentence in a low-security federal correctional facility in Tallahassee, Florida, according to Bureau of Prisons records.

The Haddon, Morgan and Foreman law firm declined to comment.

It is unclear whether the firm will withdraw representation in Maxwell's ongoing litigation, but no official documents appear to have been filed on the public docket yet.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
×