Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal against her jail sentence appears to be in trouble after her estranged husband reportedly refused to pay her $2 million legal bill.
Maxwell, 60, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June of this year following her conviction of five counts of sex trafficking, per Sky News.
She recruited young girls for Jeffrey Epstein, her billionaire sex offender boyfriend through the 1990s and early 2000s. Epstein was arrested in 2019 but died by suicide in his prison cell before he could be tried for the new set of sex crimes he had been accused of.
Per the Daily Mail, Maxwell has found her appeal against her jail sentence in tatters after her estranged husband, Scott Borgerson, 46, reportedly refused to pay her lawyers.
The pair secretly married in 2016 and Borgerson controls Maxwell's fortune after she transferred up to $24 million to a trust fund just before her arrest in 2020.
However, Borgerson is believed to have ended their relationship over the phone whilst the former socialite was awaiting trial in a New York prison.
He has since been accused of withholding $1 million from his former lover as she is requesting the money to pay her lawyers in order to appeal her sentence, per the Sun.
Until the money is transferred, her team is unlikely to meet the appeal deadline in January, which could potentially force Maxwell to face the prospect of dying behind bars.
Borgerson did not visit his wife whilst she was in the New York prison and did not attend her trial. However, the Sun also reports that Borgerson has recently met with Maxwell's brother Kevin and her attorneys to discuss her appeal.
According to a source, Borgerson was "being difficult" but promised to send the cash. When it didn't arrive, the firm accused him of acting under "false pretenses".
The source went on to say: "Her lawyers have not been paid. That is a serious matter in itself. Worse, she needs to come up with another $ 1 million to fund the appeal. Right now, Scott’s given her nothing."
Friends of Maxwell spoke exclusively to the Sun, claiming that her estranged husband is acting deliberately in order to compel his wife to improve his pay-off in their upcoming divorce settlement.
Borgerson has since described the claims against himself as "spin" and "fake news".
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