After Ghislaine Maxwell blamed an imaginary cellmate she named ‘A-17’ when told off in the clink, amongst documents seized from Donald Trump by the FBI is one titled ‘A-17’
In November last year, in a “world exclusive” interview with the Mail on Sunday’s Daphne Barak, the since convicted and deservedly jailed for 20 years mucky madam sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell bizarrely declared:
“Strange things happen [in my prison cell]. The toilet flushes, the shower turns on when no one is nearby. When it happens, it alarms the guards so I created a ‘cellmate’ called A-17 so when something strange happens I blame it on A-17.”
“I play peek-a-boo, hiding behind pillars and the guards join in. There are always smiles all round. Then I have a ‘monster move’ where I raise my hands and growl and they do it back. We laugh.”
Though the invention of ‘A-17’ were written off as the odd antics of a delusional deviant in denial of the serious crimes she committed along with her since croaked Ponzi scheming cohort and ex-lover Jeffrey Epstein at that time, now with the FBI’s recent raid on their former friend Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida that codename has again raised its ugly head.
Featured amongst 27 boxes, 11 sets of classified documents – which included amongst other things a grant of clemency for Trump’s mate Roger Stone and information on the President of France – seized is one listed as a box that has been referenced as ‘A-17.”
Kan M. Nawady, a former Southern District of New York federal prosecutor turned “seasoned trial, investigations and criminal defence lawyer” and ABC News contributor remarked late last week:
“This is exactly the same espionage that [Edward] Snowden was charged with… What that is, that is that it means they think that there was mishandling of top-secret information that was transmitted to unauthorised persons. This is the exact same statute that Snowden was charged with.”
“[These are documents that] if they get out there, it can cause exceptionally grave damage to our national security – so it’s really important stuff, it’s sensitive stuff.”
Could the 45th POTUS’ words of August 2020 about Maxwell be coming back to now haunt him? At the time, he remarked:
“Firstly, I don’t know that, but I do know that her friend or boyfriend Epstein was either killed or committed suicide in jail.”
“She’s now in jail. Yeah, I wish her well. I’d wish you well, I’d wish a lot of people well. Good luck. Let them prove that somebody was guilty. Do you know she was guilty?”
“Her boyfriend died in jail and people are still trying to figure out how did that happen. Was it suicide? Was he killed? And I do wish her well and I’m not looking at anything bad for her. I’m not looking bad for anybody.”
“And they took that and they made such a big deal and all it is is that her boyfriend died in jail. Was he killed? Was it suicide? I wish her well.”
One thing is sure and that right-minded people everywhere will continue to remind both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton that links to Maxwell and Epstein should not be left to fade away quietly. It is time that both former presidents explained at the very least why they were both so happy to spend time with and jet around the world with these two very wicked wastrels.
Receipts for property taken by the United States Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation from Mar-a-Lago, 1100 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach, Florida, FL 33480 on 8th August 2022 tellingly includes the codename used by Ghislaine Maxwell whilst she was in the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York awaiting trial.Donald Trump, Robert Maxwell, cable news executive Steve Ross and CBS reporter Mike Wallace in the wheelhouse of the Lady Ghislaine yacht during a party in New York in the spring of 1989.Donald Trump, then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida on 12th February 2000. Both paedophiles attended multiple events over many years at Trump’s club including one in 1992 where he celebrated being single after divorcing Ivana Trump and breaking up with Marla Maples. In addition, in 1997, Trump flew from Palm Beach to Newark with Epstein and Maxwell and attended a dinner for Prince Andrew at the taxi-driver-turned-Ponzi schemer’s New York mansion in in 1999.Phone numbers for the late Ivana Trump and her daughter Ivanka both feature in the now infamous ‘black book’ so often wrongly credited as being Epstein’s. The majority of contacts that ‘The Steeple Times’ have corresponded with listed there claim to instead have known Maxwell primarily. Some go as far as to claim to have never even met Epstein. Curiously but likely completely unrelated, both Ivana and Ivanka’s phone numbers contain the numbers 17.The 62,500 square foot, 126 room mansion raided was built between 1924 and 1927 by the breakfast cereal heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. It has been owned by the brash businessman turned 45th POTUS since 1985 and is the 24th largest mansion in the United States of America.Kan Nawady appeared on ABC News show ‘NewsLive Prime’ with Linsey Davis to discuss the FBI raid and the implications of it. He emphasised the seriousness of it and compared the situation to that of the in-exile in Russia ex-National Security Agency (NSA) employer turned dissident ‘whistleblower’ Edward Snowden.
In spite of sticking up a support message for ‘Peace For Ukraine’ on his website billionaire restaurateur Arkady Novikov comes under fire given his links to his billionaire pal President Putin and his billionaire British hating former business associate Alexey Chepa
Launched with an almighty fanfare in December 2011 by the consummately confident Michigan born PR Jori White – whose eponymous and otherwise much respected firm has “worked with it since it opened its doors” and whom lists it prominently on her website still today – Novikov is a 540-seat Mayfair restaurant that’s like Marmite.
Said to have cost £10 million ($13.1 million, €12.1 million or درهم48.3 million) in fit-out costs alone and the haunt variously of the likes of Rhianna, Sir Tom Jones, Tamara Ecclestone, Holly Vallance, Wayne Rooney and Prince Harry – before his ‘Modern Day Mrs Simpson’ wife wickedly whisked the drip off to dine on yoghurt and do yoga in woke California – here is a restaurant which cannot but help be labelled anything but “brash” and “brassy.” There’s nothing modest about either its size or its 900 cover-a-day clientele, but its success in attracting WAGs and TOWIE twerps definitely made it the forerunner of the equally ludicrous Knightsbridge salt-throwing “McDonald’s for rich people” that is Salt Bae.
Pricey to the point that even oligarchs might have to watch their wallets – a simple fillet steak will set you back £65 ($85, €79 or درهم314) and a Peking duck knocks down at £159 ($209, €193 or درهم769) – the Berkeley Street, W1 Asian-Italian joint has now come under fire after the rambunctious critic Jay Rayner took to Twitter to tell his 346,800 followers:
“You may not wish to support London businesses with links to Putin right now. Here’s one: @NovikovLondon owned by Arkady Novikov who boasted to me of his links to the Kremlin. Also, it’s a dreadful place. My review is 10 years old but gives the essentials.”
In his February 2012 review for The Guardian, anything but a fan Rayner remarked: “In a city with a talent for opening hateful and tasteless restaurants, Novikov marks a special new low.” He commented that his dining companion added: “This tastes like cheap Chinese food” and declared also:
“You could, if you wish, hate Novikov on principle. Arkady Novikov, whose name is above the door, owns 50 or so restaurants in Moscow and likes to boast of his connections to Vladimir Putin. He has talked to me of his work as outside caterer to Putin’s Kremlin and once broke off from an interview with me to entertain Putin’s wife Lyudmila with a tour of his next venue. Of course, Putin has been accused in diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks of turning Russia into a wretched kleptocracy. He pursued violent campaigns in Chechnya and is being fingered for nicking Russia’s parliamentary elections. If we know a man by the company he keeps, then perhaps the arrival in London of a big-ticket Novikov restaurant is not something to be universally applauded.”
Bankrolled for a time in part by “outspoken critic of London” Alexey Chepa – whose St Mortiz based son Daniil Chepa was listed as having ceased to have had been a “person of significant control” of a company connected to the restaurant on 15th June 2018 – the curious links between these powerful and wealthy men is worthy highlighting.
Former defence contractor Alexey Chepa who was alleged to be an “ex-Russian spy” by Connor Boyd in the MailOnline in January 2019, has owned the Russky Mir television station and served in the Russian State Duma. He has ties to controversial Israelis including the arms dealer Arkady Gaidamak and once accused the victim of Novichok nerve agent poisoning Sergei Skripal of “selling himself to British intelligence for pennies.” Going further this mouthy menace added: “The harder [the British government] try to intimidate us, the tougher our response will be.” It is not known if he ever dined with Boris Johnson.
Speaking of the Chepa family’s removal from involvement in the business in January 2019 to the Express, “Anglo-Cypriot businessman” Costas Economou – who remains a current active “person of significant control” of Stealthwave Limited alongside Mr Novikov – commented: “He is the one who started the restaurant but Alexey Chepa has been out of it since 2013. He is not allowed to work in the business anymore. He tried to pass it on to his son, but the banks would not accept that.”
Moscow Aviation Institute trained Mr Chepa, meanwhile, responded: “I didn’t want to give up the restaurant, to be honest. It’s a very prestigious place, and I really tried to make it the best around. Arkady and I went around, doing the construction at night because they wouldn’t let us work during the day. These idiotic English laws are very complicated – you can’t carry out noisy work during certain hours.”
Mr Novikov’s time in London has certainly not been without personal drama either. Aside from being snapped with the clearly batshit bonkers self-professed Ruski ‘socialite’ Alina Blinova – whom in September 2013 told The Steeple Times: “You should just step down, and switch to some other subjects to discuss in your peaces [sic]. Maybe – overpopulated UK by its ex colonies [sic]! or Why ppl [sic] Jelouse [sic]? or Why ppl [sic] complain, critic and don’t do things to be remembered for?!” after we featured some examples of her vulgar lifestyle – the restaurant tycoon has had a secretary who was taken to court and cleared for theft and seen those that burgled his Knightsbridge mansion jailed.
In the first instance in December 2017, the “glamorous PA to Putin’s millionaire friend” – as she was termed by the MailOnline’s Tariq Tahir – Tatyana Gorova was accused of “fleecing her employer” out of £28,000 ($36,800, €34,000 or درهم135,300) but “wished the judge ‘good day’ after she was cleared” of using Mr Novikov’s card “to rent a London flat and splash out on lavish New Year’s festivities at the Intercontinental Hotel.” The “Russian blonde” personal assistant had been given a card to pay household bills and her boss had even agreed to act as a guarantor for her new home in Brockley, south east London.
Secondly in February 2020, two burglars, Karim Boutjettif and Amr Abdel-Samie, were jailed for 34 months and 32 months respectively after stealing £500,000 ($658,000, €607,300 or درهم2.4 million) of items – including 29 handbags and 6 jackets – from the £40 million ($52.7 million, €48.6 million or درهم193.3 million) Knightsbridge home of the restaurateur and his wife Nadzeda Advokatova in October 2019. After being spotted by a passer-by in their balaclavas, one of the robbers shouted: “Quick we’ve been clocked,” the Evening Standard later reported.
Elsewhere, in another favoured playground of Putin’s oligarch pals, Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy, Mr and Mrs Novikov paid £27.2 million ($35.8 million, €33 million or درهم131.4 million) for Villa Fontanelle, the former home of the late fashion designer Gianni Versace, in early 2008. They subsequently spent many more millions on a renovation by the Milanese architect Claudio Pozza, but are no doubt watching it very carefully now the Italian government has started to seize Russian assets.
A request for comment to Novikov’s London management was made by The Steeple Times on Monday 7th March, but met simply by a representative – whom declined to give their name – with: “We have nothing to say.”
Previously, in November 2013, father of two Mr Novikov told ES magazine’s John Arlidge: “I’m looking at new sites… [He funds his developments with his own money and money from Russian investors, usually on a 50/50 basis] I don’t have money. I need money. I have so many Russian investors. We need English partners, please!” He could some come to regret not trying harder on that front.
Pictured top – A smug looking President Putin raising a toast and restaurateur Arkady (listed as ‘Arkadiy’ on Companies House) Novikov celebrating a Michelin Guide award. He once described Gordon Ramsay as a “hero” even though the Scottish chef called his own Moscow restaurants as “garbage.”
You may not wish to support London businesses with links to Putin right now. Here’s one: @NovikovLondon owned by Arkady Novikov who boasted to me of his links to the Kremlin. Also, it’s a dreadful place. My review is 10 years old but gives the essentials. https://t.co/UeahQvjt0x
Since uproar about boycotting Russian owned restaurants, Novikov London have somewhat hastily added a “Peace For Ukraine” banner to their homepage. It does not come, however, with any accompanying reasoning. One would have thought with their vast resources, them and their marketing department could perhaps have done better other than to give an arrogant comment to the ‘Evening Standard’ that simply said: “We have lots of Ukrainian customers, we have lots of Russian customers.”On her eponymous firm’s website, hospitality PR maestro Jori White continues to display the restaurant’s logo prominently.Questions about the undoubtedly successful restaurateur and his connections to the evil tyrant President Vladimir Putin and Alexey Chepa (pictured) and his son Daniil Chepa will no doubt dog him further in the coming weeks.Now 24-year-old Daniil Chepa’s current business activities are unknown. He became a person of significant control of the restaurant his father co-invested in 2016 aged just 16. According to ‘Meduza’ in December 2019, he likes to “listens to remixes of the Russian national anthem, as well as some Russian rap.”Famous faces known to have frequented Novikov in ritzy Mayfair have included coffin dodging Putin apologist Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter Tamara, the British professional boxer Anthony Joshua and the likes of Rhianna (pictured left) and Prince Harry (pictured right).Off-her-merry-rocker wannabe television personality Alina Blinova (pictured centre left) is a typical example of the customers of the Mayfair eatery – tacky, tedious and totally tawdry. Personal assistant Tatyana Gorova (pictured right) was cleared from stealing from her restaurateur boss in December 2017 whilst working there.Off-her-merry-rocker wannabe television personality Alina Blinova (pictured centre left) is a typical example of the customers of the Mayfair eatery – tacky, tedious and totally tawdry. Personal assistant Tatyana Gorova (pictured right) was cleared from stealing from her restaurateur boss in December 2017 whilst working there.This intensely wealthy Russian couple not only have a £40 million home in Knightsbridge, London and a £27 million home on Lake Como in Italy (pictured when in the ownership of slain fashion designer Gianni Versace). Mrs Novikov controls the Flowers Studio 55 business in Moscow and there are over 50 other establishments in Moscow and elsewhere that her rags-to-riches husband is seemingly the owner of.
THE BILLIONAIRE RESTAURATEUR’S COMPANIES
The billionaire has been linked to several UK Companies House listed companies. The first, Novikov (UK), has been dissolved whilst Stealthwave Limited remains active:
Barclays puts a stop to £22 million of bonus payments to ex-CEO and Jeffrey Epstein associate Jes Staley as investigation continues; meanwhile frozen-out Barclays customer Ghislaine Maxwell’s mum’s former Belgravia home faces the wrecking ball
With the bank declaring it had “exercised its discretion” to suspend share payouts related to his deferred bonus and long-term incentive plan “pending further developments in respect of the regulatory and legal proceedings related to the ongoing FCA and [Prudential Regulation Authority] investigation regarding Mr Staley,” the Boston born fat cat will now no doubt be regretting his decision to communicate with Epstein using codewords still to be deciphered including “snow white.”
Staley – who reportedly last met with Epstein along with his wife Debbie when they sailed to ‘Paedo Island’ Little St James in 2015 and whom also visited the sex mad monster whilst he was serving a sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2009 – continues to claim his innocence and is continuing with his plans to challenge the investigation’s findings.
Meanwhile, in other news, it’s finally D-day for the former Belgravia home of mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s late mother, Dr Elisabeth Maxwell-Meynard (AKA ‘Betty Maxwell’). Dr Maxwell – whose daughter had her Barclays account frozen a day after £130,000 ($174,000, €155,000 or درهم640,000) was deposited in it by the buyer of her Kinnerton Street mews house in February 2021 – lived in Lockmore House, Cundy Street in the wake of her husband’s death and exposure as a crook.
Lockmore House and its neighbours – which at one-time counted the Duchess of Cornwall, Baroness Boothroyd and Patricia Routledge as residents – is being razed to the ground by the new Duke of Westminster to make way for far ritzier residences.
“I was her parents’ worst nightmare” – words said by James Staley his very self – will be ringing in the ears of Debbie Nitzan Staley in the wake of her husband’s former company’s decision to not yet payout £22 million the couple were expecting. No doubt that’ll mean one less holiday for her and her two daughters on their 90-foot long gin palace ‘Bequia’ this year. Jes Staley, at the time a senior JP Morgan executive (left), with former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 at the latter’s Lenox Hill, New York mansion.The now left-out-in-the-cold banker was listed in the infamous ‘Little Black Book’ sometimes wrongly accredited to being Jeffrey Epstein’s – but mostly that features the addresses of contacts of ‘The Bouncing Czech’s’ decidedly deviant daughter – and had six contact numbers as well as an email there. He was clearly a very close associate of the dodgy duo, whatever he now claims. In times past Labour peer Lord Mandelson – ‘Mandy’ to his dear and always very wealthy muckers – described the former Barclays boss Bob Diamond as “the unacceptable face of banking.” Peter Mandelson, meanwhile, was quite happy to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein, a mutual mate of his successor Jes Staley, at his £10 million Paris paedo pad circa 20th January 2007 in spite of the taxi driver turned sex trafficker having been charged with soliciting a woman for prostitution in August 2006. Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein are pictured here celebrating the latter’s birthday with wine and a cake presented by a diminutive butler named Valdson Viera Cortin.Ghislaine Maxwell is like a rotten curate’s egg – she is a woman of multiple parts, but sadly most of them are bad, very bad in fact. On the one hand there’s the sexually deviant mucky madam who sex trafficked and abused young girls with Jeffrey Epstein and then there’s the clearly very intelligent daughter of an abusive father and a less abusive mother. That mother, Dr Elisabeth Maxwell-Meynard (or Betty to her friends), once arrogantly declared: “My name is my name and what can I do about it? I don’t give a fig what people think of me.” Try telling that to the pensioners of the company her husband plundered to the tune of £500 million.Lochmore House, Cundy Street, Belgravia, London was Betty Maxwell’s last home in the United Kingdom. It is now being demolished by the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate to make way for far more luxurious residences much to the distress of existing residents turfed out. The neighbouring Stack House – also being demolished – was where the then 25-year-old Camilla Shand (now the Duchess of Cornwall) first entertained her now husband Prince Charles, at the time 23, over coffee in the early hours after a night out at Annabel’s in 1972.
As Naomi Campbell gets called out for pulling a ‘Catherine Meyer’ at the charity she runs, we remind her that her “rum chum” choice of friends including convicted sex offenders Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein do her no favours
Guffawing gadabout and notorious grabber of money from anyone who’d give him a dime Prince Andrew pictured with the ghastly guffawing ex-charity tinbanger Lady Meyer and her pompous pillock husband Sir Christopher Meyer in New York on 14th October 2001.Lady Meyer was exposed by ‘The Telegraph’ over a number of days in May 2011 for having received “almost 70 per cent” of the funds raised by the charity she then ran, Parents & Abducted Children Together (PACT). Though she technically broke no law, the public outrage that followed was quite understandable.Streatham born model Naomi Campbell’s charity Fashion For Relief (FFR) – charity number 1159995 – seems to have adopted a very similar approach to Lady Meyer in allocating the funds it raises.In the past Adam Luck has called out the notoriously temperamental “drama queen” model out for the “rum chum” company she keeps. He remarked of her as she turned fifty: “No doubt Campbell plans to celebrate her half century in style, but she’d be wise to strike some old acquaintances from the guest list.”
Now listed as having a “regulatory alert” on the official Charity Commission for England and Wales website, Fashion For Relief – which curiously claims to “raise funds via events and donations to help prevent poverty, sickness and distress, to advance education and training and improvements in conditions of life” yet seems to just spend money on brash bashes – Luck revealed is “currently under investigation.”
An artist named Pierre Musa, who donated to Campbell’s ‘charity,’ told the paper he was “infuriated” by the shocking figures. He added:
“The reality is that the FFR donations are a fraction of the money raised. Instead, the money has gone on extravagant events and ‘other expenses.’”
“FFR gathers the richest, most influential personalities in the world to raise funds. I have seen the donor lists and we are talking private wealth in the dozens of billions.”
“It is difficult to see any philanthropic ambition in these numbers.”
“I have now cut all ties with Naomi’s charity and I have contacted the Charities Commission to offer to help them with their investigation.”
In response, a spokesman for Fashion For Relief arrogantly answered: “FFR is not solely a fundraising charity.” In doing so, they proved only one thing and that is that this so-called ‘charity’ – just like the then Lady Meyer’s before it – is nothing but an opportunity for a self-promoter to do yet more self-promotion. Shame on Naomi Campbell.
Pictured top – Model Naomi Campbell with the since convicted sex offender mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell and the now accused of being a financial fraudster Donald Trump and his now wife, the former Melania Knauss.
With the ‘socialite’ daughter of a pension pot plunderer turned now convicted sex trafficker and abuser, Ghislaine Maxwell.With (circled) victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Virginia Roberts (now known as Virginia Giuffre).With the accused of being a sex abuser actor Kevin Spacey.With the film producer turned convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein.With Bernie Ecclestone’s decidedly dubious accused of being all sorts of things associate Flavio Briatore.
Matthew Steeples suggests prosecutors at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell are right to follow the money; where did the £500 million her father plundered disappear to?
Speaking of this potentially filthy money, at a time when it was estimated at lower sum, to Time magazine in July 2020, Jordan Waxman, managing partner of New York wealth management firm Nucleus Advisors, said: “£15.2 million ($20 million, €17.7 million or درهم73.5 million) seemed a low amount for someone using offshore accounts. It was possible that was just the tip of the iceberg.”
Going further, Waxman added:
“I would venture to say 20 is probably what they found so far and that the net worth would be substantially more. The other thing is Jeffrey Epstein allegedly was worth £432-or-so million ($570 million, €505 million or درهم2.1 billion). What was she doing as his No. 2 and only with $20 million?”
“It could be an elaborate shell game – where the peanut’s underneath the shell and it keeps moving around and there are more and more shells.”
Whilst Mr McHugh was called to the stand on Monday to describe the transactions his firm conducted between the on-off couple, what prosecutors have not yet been able to unravel – aside from the fact that Epstein likely transferred funds from other sources to Miss Maxwell also – is how the deviant actually originally met and who actually introduced them.
Kirby Sommers’ tweet about the Maxwell memorial evidence.A beaming Betty Maxwell at the event with an image of her evil conman, crook late husband behind her.
First highlighted by crusading author of Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography Kirby Sommers, ‘The Bouncing Czech’s’ dodgy daughter was pictured sitting next to evil Epstein at a memorial lunch to the pension pot plunderer on 24th November 1991. This image is telling in that the pair clearly were connected prior to Robert Maxwell’s death as if Epstein hadn’t known the tyrant tycoon, why would he a) have been there and b) why would he have been given such a prominent place on the seating plan?
Going further of this image and suggesting the pair met “as early as 1988,” in September 2020, Broken: Seeking Justice podcaster Emily Saul remarked:
“In addition to these accounts, there’s also a photo, snapped a mere 19 days after Robert Maxwell’s death [on the 19th November 1991], that intimately links Epstein and Ghislaine. Shot at the Plaza Hotel during a memorial event for Robert Maxwell, the picture shows Ghislaine and Epstein in conversation. Wearing a blue silk jacket, Ghislaine smiles coyly at Epstein, who is seated to her right, wearing a white bowtie and an enormous grin. It doesn’t look like a first date.”
“If this is true, then the power dynamic between them shifts significantly. Perhaps she was the boss and Epstein did her bidding. Or, at the very least, they may have been equals.”
“Chronologically, geographically, the idea that Robert Maxwell setup his daughter with Epstein makes sense. Epstein and Robert Maxwell both had offices at the same address, the historic Helmsley Palace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan… Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein did business together.”
As I have always suggested of this case, there’s a key detail that most miss the point on and that is missing money. After Robert Maxwell’s death in 1991, £500 million ($660 million, €585 million or درهم2.4 billion) vanished from his company’s pension fund and his daughter, Ghislaine, moaned about penniless and that even her knives and forks had been seized, yet within a year was living in a New York mansion and the beneficiary of at least fifteen bank accounts with balances “as high as £15.2 million ($20 million, €17.7 million or درهم73.5 million).”
Interested parties should finally examine the matter of where that money actually originated and whether this charade actually centres on the matter of a Maxwell to Maxwell transaction with Epstein simply as a financial functionary. As is always the case with this story, the truth is stranger than fiction and yet again I would suggest that this evil empire was a very dirty laundry.
Pictured top: Since croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and since incarcerated alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell at the memorial event for her father in New York in 1991.
Whilst unsuccessfully trying to get bail for Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-lover and clear associate, Maxwell’s family and her ‘secret’ husband since 2016, Scott Borgerson, offered to pony-up £21.6 million ($28.5 million, €25.3 million or درهم104.7 million) in assets. The key question is: “How did this supposedly ‘broke’ in 1991 woman amass this vast fortune and how much else does she really have to her name?” Equally: “Where is Mr Borgerson now and why isn’t he in court to support his wife?”
Gaoled‘Mini-Madoff’ Inigo Philibrick admits he did “it for money… that simple” as he pleads guilty to £64 million art fraud; his usually mouthy ‘baby mama’ Victoria Baker-Harber has meanwhile gone surprisingly silent
Somewhat ludicrously lauded as an “art world wunderkind” by The Daily Beast and “the art world’s Mini-Madoff” by his one-time chum, the art dealer Kenny Schachter, Inigo Philbrick this week pleaded guilty to wire fraud and will turn over some £64 million ($86 million, €76 million or درهم316 million) and several paintings to authorities.
Now facing upto 20 years in jail without the possibility of parole when sentenced on 18th March 2021, 34-year-old Philbrick – who is presently engaged and has a young child with the mouthy Made In Chelsea reality show participant Victoria Baker-Harber – told the Manhattan federal court: “I knew my actions were wrong and illegal.”
Going further, the Ponzi scheming crook added: “[I] knowingly engaged [in a scheme to make money using] material misrepresentations and omissions.”
Asked by the judge in the case, Sidney Stein: “Why did you do this?”, Philbrick responded: “For money, your honour… That simple.” Reportedly, prior to proceedings, the felon “looked towards a modelesque blonde who was seated in the front row, and raised his eyebrows at her in a playful greeting.”
Described mockingly by Vulture as having “shackles around his ankles [and] wearing a khaki jail shirt and institutional navy pants” and with hair “grown out into a sort of curly mullet,” the supposedly “remorseless” criminal’s plea deal has resulted in prosecutors recommending a sentence of between 121 and 151 months. As part of this, he has agreed not to appeal any sentence of 151 months or less.
In a statement following the hearing, U.S. attorney Damian Williams commented:
“Inigo Philbrick was a serial swindler who took advantage of the lack of transparency in the art market to defraud art collectors, investors, and lenders of more than $86 million to finance his art business and his lifestyle.”
Responding in an emailed statement, the bearded bullshitter’s attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, later remarked:
“Inigo accepted full responsibility for his actions today and will pay for his crimes the rest of his life.”
“While his actions were dishonest and criminal in nature, he’s part of an industry sick from top to bottom where this sort of behavior is sadly commonplace. That being said, he apologises to his victims and will do all that he can to make them whole.”
Previously, in December 2019, revered art dealer Jay Jopling – who helped launch Philbrick’s career by giving him an internship – told ARTnews:
“I am aware of the serious allegations made against Mr Inigo Philbrick. It has hurt and saddened me to learn that Mr Philbrick, whom I respected and whose early career I supported, has not only betrayed my trust but, it appears, that of many others.”
“We are privileged in our industry to work closely with the artists and art that we love. I am enormously disappointed that Mr. Philbrick appears to have abused this position of privilege.”
“I was shocked to discover the allegations of serious wrongdoing by Mr Philbrick in U.S. media reports in October 2019. At the earliest possible opportunity, I applied for an injunction against Mr Philbrick to protect my interests.”
Pictured top: Incarcerated conman Inigo Philbrick with Victoria Baker-Harber – a wacky woman who’ll normally do anything for attention who has remarkably now gone rather quiet on both her Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Works by famous artists that passed through the grubby hands of double-dealing, deviant dealer Inigo Philbrick included ones by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Bradford, Wade Guyton, Donald Judd, Yaoyoi Kusama, Richard Prince, Rudolf Stingel and Christopher Wool. He was snared in June 2020 on the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu after disappearing in October 2019.Amongst victims of the fraudster were Kenny Schachter (pictured left). Victoria Baker-Harber (right) showed no regret for her association with Inigo Philbrick in June 2020 – a man who ferried her around in a private jet at the expense of others – in retweeting an attack on Schachter by someone named ‘Koogs’ on Twitter. They opined: “Who quotes themselves?? Get over it! Your wife is a billionaire! Are you crying about cash or cock?”Prior to taking up with tedious twerp Victoria Baker-Harber, Inigo Philbrick was in relationship with Francisca Mancini, a Buenos Aires born art advisor turned perfume maker.
Kenny Schachter having a chat about Inigo Philbrick amongst other things. One thing is for certain about the husband of Ilona Rich Schachter (daughter of the late Marc Rich and Denise Eisenberg Rich) – he’s anything but reticent about sharing his opinions about his former friend, someone he has given the moniker ‘The Art World’s Mini-Madoff.’
Barclays CEO Jes Staley stands down 627 days after his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were exposed; ‘Epstein’s fat cat’ leaves with a £2.5 million golden handshake
It’s taken 627 days, but today James ‘Jes’ Staley has stepped down over his links to the croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. A man cited as a “cat running out of lives” by Markets.com’s Neil Wilson on 13th February 2020, the now former chief executive officer of Barclays has finally realised his days as a powerhouse are numbered.
Coming just prior to alleged mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s New York trial commencing on the 29th November, Staley’s fall from grace has interestingly come about not because of a decision by Barclays itself. Here, in fact, is a move that has occured because of regulatory bodies and public relations considerations.
It now transpires that Staley’s resignation followed the investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority reaching a preliminary conclusion that effectively condemned Staley as “unfit” to continue to act as the chief of a banking giant whose revenue was £21.766 billion in 2020.
Boston, Massachusetts born Staley now intends to contest the regulator’s decisions and in a statement this morning, Barclays announced:
“In view of those conclusions, and Mr Staley’s intention to contest them, the board and Mr Staley have agreed that he will step down from his role as group chief executive and as a director of Barclays.”
“The board is disappointed at this outcome. Mr Staley has run the Barclays Group successfully since December 2015 with real commitment and skill.”
Going further, the firm added that the investigation did not conclude that Staley “saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes, which was the central question underpinning Barclays’ support for Mr Staley following the arrest of Mr Epstein in the summer of 2019.”
However, with the vultures unsurprisingly circling, clearly the financial giant have finally realised that negative media attention around both Maxwell and Prince Andrew’s links to Epstein – a man first convicted of sexual offences in 2008 – are about to return to haunt them also.
In October 2015, the Daily Mail published an article suggesting they had seen emails written by Epstein indicating he had “begun arguing for Mr Staley in financial circles in the summer of 2012″ while Barclays was searching for a new CEO.”
Astoundingly, Jes Staley will leave the firm with a 12 month golden handshake worth some £2.5 million. Who said associating with a paedophile doesn’t pay?
Jes Staley, at the time a senior JP Morgan executive (left), with former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 at the latter’s Lenox Hill, New York mansion.
Mr Staley’s departure caused havoc this morning for Barclays’ share price. The revelation that the now former CEO visited Little St James, the island owned by the now croaked paedophile, months before he took up his role at the bank in 2015 were especially damning given Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sexual offences against minors. Last year, attempting to justify his position, the banker declared: “Obviously I thought I knew him well and I didn’t. For sure, with hindsight with what we know now, I deeply regret having any relationship with Jeffrey.”Little St James – now tellingly known as ‘Paedo Island’ – was not only the scene of meetings between the now former Barclays CEO and the now croaked paedophile. It was also allegedly one of the locations where Prince Andrew abused his civil case accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Since Epstein’s rather suspicious death in 2019, various “garish” items on the island have been removed – amongst them gargoyles and sculptures of cockatoos and a cow.
As businessman Thomas Huff – whom bought Jeffrey Epstein’s Gulfstream jet in 2019, 11 years after the latter’s first sexual offence conviction – belatedly sues due to “regret,” all he does is make a moron of himself
The old proverb “a fool and his money are easily parted” certainly applies to Cobb County, Georgia based Thomas Huff – a man whom bought Jeffrey Epstein’s Gulfstream jet in 2019 in spite of the since croaked paedophile’s 2008 conviction.
Now filing a lawsuit against Epstein’s estate on the basis that he claims the jet was used in “criminal enterprises” he claims to have known nothing of, Huff alleges that his company, JEGE LLC, has been damaged by the stigma.
In his suit, the businessman claims:
“JEGE’s customers, some of which are very well known to the public, are tracked, surveilled, and reported to the press for using, what they believed to be Jeffrey Epstein’s company.”
“Mr Epstein committed fraud by failing to disclose a material fact that could not have been known through any amount of due diligence by Thomas Huff.”
“Additionally, JEGE was not able to obtain financing, not because of credit worthiness, but because of the stigma of Jeffrey E. Epstein’s victimization of children attached to JEGE.”
“He knew or should have known that his ongoing criminal enterprise would undermine the value of JEGE if and when it was discovered… [His] lies were a breach of the duty of candor.”
Going further, Huff’s attorney, Jeff Banks, told The Daily Beast:
“It’s truly affected my client being able to use it. A lot of people track the plane, who flies on it, and of course, harass those people, and they don’t want to lease the airplane anymore. So, it’s affected his business.”
“I did reach out early to Jeffrey Epstein’s attorneys and their thought was, ‘Well, you should have known he was this terrible person.’”
“They had somebody contact me and say that if I’d done research, I could have figured out what a sleaze he was.”
Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein owned several private jets during his lifetime, the most notorious was nicknamed ‘Lolita Express’ – it remains notorious for having been used for sex trafficking.President Bill Clinton was pictured getting off said private plane with currently incarcerated awaiting trial alleged mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell.Prince Andrew, meanwhile, liked to enjoy his chum Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘toys’ – he is pictured here boarding an unconnected private jet to Balmoral.
Poundland muckspreader and prattling peer Karren Brady continues to bore the public by banging on about just about everything
Calling a woman a “Karen” is to use “pejorative slang to describe an obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white female who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people’s behaviour,” but there’s a “Karren” (with two ‘r’s’) frankly even worse than her single ‘r’ sister.
Beginning with a commentary about how she likes to tell her children “how things used to be” in “the olden days” and how she “prefers real friends” in spite of promoting herself heavily on Instagram, Brady – once branded a “nasty piece of trash” and “a complete coward” by Duncan Bannatyne – then claimed Kirsty Bertarelli’s £350 million divorce settlement “seems like a fair and well-deserved payoff to me.”
Aside from illustrating how out of touch with the lives of ordinary folk throughout the land, job destroyer Sir Philip Green’s friend and associate’s comments once again show her to be incapable of saying or writing anything rational or reasoned.
“Arrogant, self-interested baroness” and gutter gossip hack” Brady then continued by offering up her views on climate change and those protesting against it, “the joys of flexible working,” swimmer Tom Daley’s bulimia and Dominic Raab’s misunderstanding of the concepts of misogyny and misandry. Instead, could this weird wench not have focused on perhaps just one topic?
“At 23, I had skin as thick as a rhino… I don’t have any fears.”
“I dare to put my head above the parapet, to have a mind and a voice of my own and to plough my own furrow.”
“[I am now] one of the most highly sought-after motivational speakers in the world.”
More modest than the late Mother Theresa, one is simply left asking: “What on earth was it about the very wealthy woman Karren Brady that David Cameron saw fit to elevate her to the House of Lords?”
As she is quite deservedly denied bail for a FOURTH time, mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell sues the publishers of a book about her and Jeffrey Epstein; we respond by urging readers to buy ‘Vice Island’ now
Jean-Gabriel Fredet – the former editor of the popular French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur (now known as L’Obs) – is a greatly respected journalist. He has written about the “greed” of artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons and their “megalomaniac collectors” and now after turning his pen to the activities of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell, she’s decided to sue.
In spite of being incarcerated and facing a likely sentence of upto 88 years if convicted for trafficking and abusing minors, Maxwell – via the frankly ridiculous RealGhislaine.com website set up ‘in her honour’ by her family – decided on Wednesday to issue a press release announcing she is taking legal action against Albin Michel, the publishers of Fredet’s latest book – L’île de tous es vices (Vice Island).
Claiming Fredet’s publishers have “violated her legal right to the presumption of innocence” via a French lawyer named Oliver Laude and issued in a two-page PDF document by “crisis communications expert” Yves-Paul Robert, founder of the Plead agency, Maxwell arrogantly announced:
“The publication of this book by Albin Michel constitutes an unacceptable attack on the presumption of innocence of Ms. Maxwell. Given the imminence of her criminal trial, to present her as already guilty – which this book does – is as repugnant as it is irresponsible.”
“Everyone has the right for the presumption of innocence to be respected. Where a person is, prior to any conviction, publicly presented as guilty of matters under judicial investigation, the judge may not only compensate the damage suffered, but also take all necessary measures, such as the insertion of a correction or the dissemination of a press release, in order to stop the violation of the presumption of innocence, and this at the expense of the person, or persons, responsible for that violation.”
“The violation in such an egregious fashion of the fundamental right to the presumption of innocence to which Ms. Maxwell is entitled calls for Albin Michel publishers to be made an example of, as much for their own flagrant breach of the law as to deter other media owners in France and indeed around the world from believing they can proceed thus with impunity against her or other persons in similar circumstances.”
Maxwell, a woman prone to banging on about the hardships of having not one but two computers in her cell, is demanding that “Albin Michel publishers be ordered to pay her damages for the prejudices suffered” and wants the “pulping of all extant copies of Vice Island” also.
What’ll this conniving crackpot be demanding next? Aside from Krug on tap in the pokey, this mendacious minx will probably be putting in a request via her PR peddler Brian Basham for a tame personal biographer to spin her as the modern-day Sister Wendy.
A hearing regarding Vice Island, according to the press release, is scheduled for the 19th May 2021 in France and thus The Steeple Times now urges all interested readers to purchase a copy as a sign of support for Mr Fredet and Albin Michel today.
To buy a copy of ‘L’île de tous les vices: Sexe, pouvoir et impunité, révélations sur l’affaire’ by Jean-Gabriel Fredet, click here.
Pictured top: An especially smug, smirking Ghislaine Maxwell boozing with Mick Jagger (left) and the cover of Jean-Gabriel’s ‘Vice Island’ (right).
Maxwell Booked – “The publishing of Albin Michel’s book ‘is as repugnant as it is irresponsible.’ As Ghislaine awaits trial she is presumed innocent and yet this book ‘constitutes an unacceptable attack on the presumption of innocence of Ms. Maxwell’” stated the team behind RealGhislaine.com on Thursday on Twitter. PR peddler Brian Basham (pictured left), chairman of a firm named ACUITY Reputation, is generally spokesman for the mucky madam, but now she’s added others to the rota and in doing so illustrated the vast resources she’s throwing at the case.Maxwell Booked – Jean-Gabriel Fredet’s book ‘Vice Island’ is described as follows: “How did a billionaire received by the entire American elite find himself, after years of madness, plunged into a dizzying descent into hell? Jeffrey Epstein is unquestionably rich. However, he left no trace in the world of finance. Its main activity? Satisfy his impulses in an organised gang! For more than twenty years, hundreds of young girls, many of them minors, made the trip to her island in the Antilles archipelago, aboard the ‘Lolita Express,’ one of his private planes. Who helped Jeffrey Epstein? Who participated in his sex trafficking? Who, among the rich and famous registered in his little black notebook, accompanied him to the island of all vices? Clinton, Trump, Kevin Spacey, Prince Andrew … and others? Prosecutors under influence, unscrupulous lawyers, nouveau riche and old fortunes … the Epstein affair sheds light on the flaws of a society indifferent to the crimes of those who live by their own rules and who know only one law: that of impunity.”Maxwell Booked – Yves-Paul Robert is described on his firm Plead’s website as: “[A] chief executives on their oversight of communications, advocacy and intermediation strategies. He is also a recognised expert in crisis communications and has developed specific expertise in media relations. Prior to setting up Plead, Yves-Paul was head of crisis communications at Havas Paris. In 2017 he wrote a book entitled ‘Le Despote-Consommateur’ (‘The Consumer Despot’) published by Editions Plon, which analyses the way that consumer behaviour is influenced by brands and social media in an increasingly digital world.”
