Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell ( ghee-LAYN, -LEN; born 25 December 1961) is a British socialite known for her association with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She worked for her father, the publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, until his death in 1991, when she moved to the United States and became a close associate of Epstein. Maxwell founded a non-profit group for the protection of oceans, The TerraMar Project, in 2012. The organisation announced cessation of operations on 12 July 2019, a week after the sex trafficking charges brought by New York federal prosecutors against Epstein became public.In 2020, Maxwell was charged by the US federal government with the crimes of enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls. The US Virgin Islands Department of Justice announced on 10 July 2020 that Maxwell was also under investigation in the Caribbean territory.