this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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Came across the above link (view in Desktop mode) claiming to be an article from 1990 saying that Robert Maxwell not only intervened with these children, they put them on his plane. I was trying to find more information and stumbled on this link after reading the below article which said that Maxwell "may also have helped Jews get out of Romania in the 1980s."

It struck me at the time, with how many similarities Robert Maxwell had to Epstein ...including a love of Ghilsaine, huge financial fraud concerns, and a death that many think could have been murder. And how many people who fight trafficking end up as human traffickers themselves because it allowed them access to victims. It's just so strange that THAT man would have access to these victim networks, and that it would be so difficult to find since he allegedly was doing a good thing, right? It's not even in his obituary in the Time from 1991. But that's some Nobel Peace prize stuff, right? So why is it so hard to find except in passing mentions in articles?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/did-father-robert-maxwells-early-abuse-taint-ghislaine-long-before-she-met-epstein/

It would be interesting if he really was human trafficking those kids, and it would mean that Ghilsaine wasn't likely recruited by Epstein after her father died, but rather she recruited him to continue her work.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/ghislaine-maxwell-robert-jeffrey-epstein-b2472888.html

Maxwell told the 2016 deposition that after Epstein was jailed she continued to occasionally work at his properties and kept her ties with him.

“I’m a very loyal person and Jeffrey was very good to me when my father passed away,” she said in the 2016 deposition.

“I felt that it was a very thoughtful, nice thing for me to do to help in a very limited fashion.”

Maybe she was loyal to him because he was her employee.

[Giuffre] claimed that Maxwell had directed her on three occasions to have sex with Prince Andrew.

https://www.grunge.com/656382/this-is-how-ghislaine-mawell-and-jeffrey-epstein-really-met/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/09/30/ghislaine-maxwell-reportedly-met-jeffrey-epstein-through-her-disgraced-father/?sh=17e34bc370f4

According to Forbes, Maxwell and Epstein met through her father, convicted fraudster and tabloid king, Robert Maxwell. The pair was introduced as early as 1988, with Robert Maxwell reportedly providing funds for Epstein.

The claim that Robert Maxwell introduced his beloved daughter to Epstein comes from a convicted Ponzi schemer who had dealings with the men, according to Distractify. Other sources have Ghislaine Maxwell meeting Epstein through mutual friends around 1991, the year when Robert Maxwell died after suffering a heart attack and drowning.

Finding out how those two met is likewise quite difficult, which is crazy since both of them went through several trials detailing their crimes. The Forbes article even notes that its likely they knew each other before Robert's death because of a photo of them together around 19 days after he died.

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[–] bradorsomething@ttrpg.network 6 points 2 months ago

Only thing that stands out about him was the number of former Mossad directors that went to his funeral. Rumors he helped pinch nuclear secrets from the UK.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I don't see anything in those articles that's particularly in conflict with the stuff that was all over the press around the time of the Epstein and G. Maxwell busts. Everyone knows Robert Maxwell was an obnoxious Rupert Murdoch type who nonetheless did a lot of philanthropy. Epstein also did philanthropy. The articles don't say Robert "trafficked" kids in the sense that Epstein did. He got a bunch of them taken to Israel (per the article--I hadn't heard this story before but it doesn't seem sensational) and lent his personal plane for the operation, no big deal. The stuff about him abusing Ghislaine is new to me but I guess it fits the general picture.

I don't particularly remember about Epstein committing financial fraud though I didn't pay much attention. It sounded to me more he had a bunch of ultra rich people investing with him and he also trafficked teenagers to them and maybe blackmailed them too. Those are very serious crimes but not financial fraud per se. The investments themselves made money, which was very easy to do in that era as financial markets in general were doing very well. I saw a news article claiming that Epstein pretended to be an investment genius and his clients treated him as a wizard, but in fact he just put everything in index funds like a common sense retail investor would. It sufficed for him to just not be an idiot in that regard. The index funds made money so the clients were happy.

Ghislaine is of course still with us and making noise from prison, so if the questions in the article are important, they could presumably ask her. Otherwise it just comes across as a bit voyeuristic.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Right, this would be speculation/fact-finding to get more info on this aspect of Robert Maxwell (his connections to moving at risk people around). Imo it's super weird that he has these ties to "refugees" yet no refugee has come forward to thank him? And it's actually pretty hard to find articles about it? Yet it seems to somehow be somewhat common knowledge as referenced by people alive then.

He named his boat after Ghislaine. Reeks of parentification/making her his spouse. He had 9 children total so it's super weird.

Epstein is known for being a fraudster and a thief. Including by his buddy Les Wexner, who claims Epstein "misappropriated funds." And he was fired by Bear Stearns for similar issues. Although it's likely Les simply was giving Epstein that money for trafficking, which is the majority of Epstein's financial crimes - money laundering. Which is probably why he liked Trump so much, because per the 2018 documentary Active Measures, Trump specialized in money laundering.

I think Ghilsaine would keep quiet as this information not only implicates her, but her dad and entire family. It does nothing to benefit her and may cause her to have more charges brought against her. Critical thinking and analyzing public health risks like human traffickers isn't "voyeurism."

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, there is not much that can be done now about Robert (dead) or Ghislaine (locked up). You're better informed about Epstein than I was. As for the refugees thanking Robert, has anyone asked them? They were kids, it was decades ago, etc., but probably some of them are still around and would remember. I don't see how "Robert abused Ghislaine" implicates Ghislaine and if anything seems like something she could have used in a plea for lighter sentencing. I don't know what parentification is but yeah it's well known that Ghislaine was Robert's favorite. I read some of the news coverage when the story was all over the press, but don't know any more than what little I remember from that.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, their victims deserve justice. The families of the victims deserve to know what happened if that is something that happened. Kinda absolutely wild that you are saying, "So what if they trafficked people?" Lol. Kinda matters.

If you would like, please go ahead and try to find them and ask them. Thanks for suggesting that on your part, seems natural you should be the one to do it since you suggested it.

I was looking for the term "emotional incest" and not "parentification" earlier, two very very closely related concepts. Basically, it means he made his kid his wife. Often this is done before physical incest occurs. As someone who speaks with survivors a bit, Robert Maxwell's relationship with Ghilsaine does seem incestuous and likely sexual given Ghilsaine's later involvement with raping minors. Showing "favoritism" like that is a pretty big sign because she's not a favorite, she's his wife.

Abuse victims have 2 choices when faced with their abuse: agree or disagree. The vast majority of abuse victims disagree with their abuse and do not go on to perpetuate it. However, I do not think Ghilsaine was one of them, clearly.

Yes, she did try to use "I was abused," as sympathy for her sentencing, that's in the linked articles in the OP. It doesn't excuse her actions over decades and as a 50 year old.

Thank you for sharing what you remember. If you see the title of this thread, my question wasn't asking if you personally felt like this was true. It was asking if anyone had more sources about this aspect of Robert Maxwell's life so I can read more info about these people he supposedly helped.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Oh I see, I didn't realize what you were getting at about the kids on the airplane. No I didn't see any indication that Robert "trafficked" them, so I took the news story at face value.

As for the title of the thread, it sounded to me like you were skeptical of the news reports you linked to, so I responded that they seemed consistent with other stuff I had seen.

As for your suspicions about the kids on the plane, and about Robert/Ghislaine, it all sounds pretty speculative. Of course almost anything is scientifically possible, and you're probably better than I am at reading past surfaces about this type of stuff. But, without actual evidence, it doesn't seem like something to discuss in public. If you think there is something to go on, it's probably better to relay your info to investigators. They might want it since I believe Ghislaine still has court cases in progress.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ah sure, I can see the comedy of errors there

I was actually nearly kidnapped as a child in the 90s and have tried to contact investigators with tips previously to cases I believe are related - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Morgan_Nick

Afaik, they never followed up on my lead and at the time I was unable to contact her mother and idk if it's ethical really for me to contact the family vs investigators. My experience with contacting investigators with leads is that it's pointless. Especially for a huge case like Maxwell, the tips get lost in the noise.

I will say public analysis of crimes tends to be done well. I'm not talking about reddit and the Boston bomber. I'm talking about the Don't Fuck With Cats people, and the people in Portland who forced PPB to investigate a serial killer after 5 women showed up dead - they initially said no, it's unrelated, and then caught Jesse Calhoun. I'm talking about the retired investigators and volunteers who work missing persons/jane doe cases in their spare time in dedicated forums to help identify dead people (I used to volunteer for these programs until my dreams were haunted with dead faces).

It helps a LOT to get public awareness if you want police to do their jobs.