FORTY TWO MORE FOR THE GOOD GUYS
Shortly after returning to Fort Lauderdale from Kentucky, I got a tip that I needed to track down Rinaldo Rizzo, a former housekeeper for one of Epstein’s ex-girlfriends, Eva Andersson.
Rizzo and his wife were the housekeepers for Eva Andersson-Dubin and her husband, Glenn Dubin, from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2011 to 2013. Glenn is a billionaire investor and Eva is a doctor and former model who once boasted the title of Miss Sweden. More interestingly, we already knew that Eva was a former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein and still one of his best friends. They were so close that Epstein was godfather to at least one of Eva and Glenn’s daughters, a fact that Epstein often bragged about.
As housekeepers for Eva and Glenn, the Rizzos were privy to copious amounts of information about Epstein just by the natural consequence of being around the Dubins, who talked often about Epstein and their frequent visits to one another’s homes. The Rizzos were exposed to so much that, in 2005, they stopped working for the Dubins because, they explained, they had “seen too much” of Epstein. They only returned in 2011 because Rinaldo believed that the Dubins had cut ties with Epstein since Epstein had gone to jail for abusing children. He quickly learned that the Dubins had not parted ways with Epstein at all.
Rinaldo Rizzo was an upstanding guy, fearful of his ex-boss and also justifiably scared of Epstein. Still, his genuine heart and the fact that he was too good of a person to stay quiet about what he knew made him give in and speak to me. We spent a lot of time talking. After I would gather information, I would then cross-reference it with other intel I had from other witnesses.
As I asked questions, Rinaldo, an honest person just trying to do the right thing, began sharing many stories about what he observed when in Epstein’s presence. He told me about a time when he took the Dubin children to see Epstein, whom the Dubin kids referred to as “Uncle Jeff,” at his Palm Beach mansion. Rinaldo saw nude pictures everywhere around the house, which made him understandably uncomfortable. Out of curiosity, he wandered around a bit, until Maxwell walked up behind him and told him to go back outside because Epstein did not like it when someone snooped around.
On another occasion, Rinaldo had been asked to make lunch at the Dubins’ house in New York for Epstein and his bevy of female followers, including Epstein’s then girlfriend, Nadia. At one point, Nadia kissed Epstein, then Epstein made Nadia kiss one of the other girls while she and the girl danced with each other. Watching this unfold, Rinaldo and his wife concluded that something was very wrong with Epstein.
According to Rinaldo, Epstein was a major point of contention between Glenn and Eva. Glenn did not really like Epstein much. But Eva did. Rinaldo recounted that the couple would argue whenever something involved Epstein. But Eva was unwavering in her loyalty to Epstein. When Jeffrey was released from jail in 2009, Eva wrote a letter to his probation officer which read, “We are the parents of three children… They are all under the age of 18. I am aware that Jeffrey Epstein is a registered sex offender and had plead guilty to soliciting for prostitution, and procuring a minor for prostitution. I am 100% comfortable with Jeffrey Epstein around my children.”
* * *
Rinaldo Rizzo was an important witness, but if he had this much information about Epstein, a household staff member who worked for Epstein himself would have even more. Alfredo Rodriguez had been released from prison, but I learned he had died of mesothelioma shortly after getting out. I’m not sure he would have talked to me anyway, although I believe that in his heart he was a good man who knew his bad decisions, and not me, had led to his unfortunate prison stint.
I turned my attention back to former housekeeper Juan Alessi, since he had a long history of working at the Palm Beach house. Alessi had started working for Epstein in approximately 1990. They had met through Les Wexner—Alessi had done maintenance and repair work for Wexner and began to do the same for Epstein. During his depositions, he had given us useful information.
Alessi had started working for Epstein during a time when Eva had been the lady of the house. Alessi liked Eva because she was well-mannered, considerate, and respectful of the household staff.
Eventually, that relationship ended around 1991, and Alessi was introduced to Epstein’s new girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was placed in charge of taking care of the house. Maxwell introduced a handbook to the staff that they all had to read, explaining that they would now be following royal practice in England. Among the rules Ghislaine implemented was a requirement that the staff never look the master, Jeffrey Epstein, in the eye.
Ghislaine was deeply controlling and did things Juan did not appreciate. When Eva was in charge, Alessi said, there weren’t other females, including young girls around the house. He remembered that as soon as Maxwell took over the house, there were female visitors there who were referred to as “masseuses,” but who did not look professional and appeared too young. Alessi also recalled that Maxwell loved to take nude photographs of girls, which she stored in a big album at her desk.
Alessi testified that after the novice “masseuses” performed massages, he would go upstairs to clean up the massage room. While there, he found recently used dildos. He put on his gloves, picked them up, rinsed them off in the sink, and returned them to a laundry basket filled with similar sex toys Maxwell kept in her closet. Alessi connected more dots for us as we pieced together how the sex scheme started and progressed. He also confirmed Virginia’s account of her time with Epstein and Maxwell.
* * *
We weren’t the only side investigating and setting depositions. Maxwell’s attorneys set one for Tony, Virginia’s long-lost boyfriend, whom she’d left behind when she escaped to Thailand. She had not spoken to Tony since she fled, and there was no way of telling what he would say. He was definitely not happy with the way Virginia had left him, and we assumed Maxwell had been in touch with him.
Tony knew as well as anyone that Virginia was telling the truth about Epstein and Maxwell. He’d had direct interaction with Epstein and personally participated in Epstein’s operation by bringing high school girls to Epstein after Virginia had escaped to Thailand and left Tony. Still, why would Maxwell’s legal team take Tony’s deposition and put him on record unless they thought he would give them favorable testimony?
It was now 2016, and Virginia hadn’t spoken with Tony since she fled in 2002. While she knew the truth, she didn’t know what Tony was going to say. Had Maxwell gotten to him? Was Tony being paid to lie? Of course, if he was, we would be stuck in the untenable position of trying to prove that he was paid, which would be difficult. What was certain was that Tony’s deposition was going to be taken and he wasn’t happy with Virginia about the way their relationship ended. I didn’t blame him.
Virginia had been the love of Tony’s life. They had lived together from the time she met Maxwell until she ran away to Thailand. She had not told him that he would never see her again. She didn’t even call him. She’d gotten married and gone with her new husband to Australia. Tony had every reason to hold a grudge. But all we needed from him was the truth. Nothing more, nothing less.
We decided that our best chance to keep Tony honest was to have Virginia attend his deposition in person. She had the legal right to be there. He would have a much harder time seeing her for the first time in fourteen years and telling lies. But we did not want Tony to be caught off guard or to think that Virginia had been in the country without making her presence known before magically appearing at his deposition. That might make him more mad, if that was possible.
I decided that I needed to contact him before he walked into the room. As expected, he was pissed. I didn’t need to say more than that I represented Virginia Roberts when he lashed out at me. “F*** this” and “F*** that” and basically “F*** her.” Even fourteen years later, he was still upset. Before I could say anything, he wanted me to know how she had broken his heart and left him with an apartment he couldn’t pay for, a car he couldn’t afford, and a b
unch of friends he lost almost immediately because he seemed like the biggest liar of all time trying to explain his live-in girlfriend’s whereabouts when he had no idea where she was. He had worried about her. He didn’t even know if she was okay.
I was genuinely sympathetic. But rather than trying to explain the complicated psychology that had led to Virginia’s “abandoning” him (to use his term), especially since there was no way he was going to give me the time necessary to even attempt that—I decided to take a different route in. I told him: “I don’t represent Virginia for the sake of trying to prove that everything she has ever done, including her relationship with you, was done right or that she was in the right. You may have a problem with her, and it may be justified. All we need from you is for you to tell the complete truth to the best of your memory.”
He said, “I’m not doing shit until I talk to Virginia. I need some explanation about why she f***ed me over.”
I tried to explain that one really had nothing to do with the other, but that if he told the truth I would make sure he had an opportunity to speak with her. Instantaneously, he went from hyperaggressive babbling to calm agreeableness. “Is she here?” he asked nicely.
I said, “She will be at your deposition, yes.” Then I asked, “Have you spoken with Jeffrey Epstein or any of the lawyers from the other side?” But this, I quickly learned, was definitely not the right question.
Tony went on another tirade about how inconvenienced he had been over the years by people trying to serve him with subpoenas and by investigators hunting him down. So I opted for a more direct route. “Do you remember any relationship between Virginia and Jeffrey Epstein, and if so, what do you remember about it?” As it turned out, he remembered a lot.
He remembered things that would be helpful to the issues in our case—although he had no idea what those actual issues were and had no interest in knowing. I didn’t even try to explain. He also remembered things that wouldn’t be helpful to us. I let him rant about whatever was on his mind and did not try to stop him from venting. He eventually ran out of steam and calmed down. The more wound up he became, the more calm I remained. At some point, it made no sense for him to keep yelling. In the end, I think his realization that he was actually going to see Virginia gave him the possible closure he wanted and deserved.
He explained that Virginia had taken a job at the Mar-a-Lago Club, that she had been fifteen years old at the time (she had actually been sixteen), but he couldn’t really recall the year, and who could blame him for that; it had been many years of heartbreak, which he had tried desperately to forget. This lack of precision didn’t concern me. In fact, it was the subject of scrutiny by Maxwell’s team and debate in our own. When Virginia was first located in her hiding place in Australia and forced to resurface, she’d said she’d been fifteen when she was recruited by Maxwell in 1998, and that is what went into the complaint filed by her lawyer, Bob Josefsberg, on her behalf—Jane Doe 102 v. Jeffrey Epstein.
That rendition of the chronology didn’t make mathematical sense. In the summer of 1998, Virginia would have been fourteen years old. And she didn’t even meet Maxwell until the summer of 2000, when she was sixteen and about to turn seventeen, something we learned after comparing Virginia’s memory with police reports, school records, and finally her Mar-a-Lago employment file, which we obtained six years after her 2009 complaint was filed.
The fact that Tony was not exact in his recollection on the date that Virginia was recruited was immaterial. He was now trying his best to remember something that he had also tried his best to forget. However, certain facts he did clearly recollect. Within six months after Virginia was approached by Ghislaine, Virginia started traveling with Jeffrey Epstein.
Initially, Tony didn’t know what was going on between Virginia and Jeffrey, but it didn’t take long before he realized sex was involved and confronted her, and she admitted it. Whenever she returned to Florida from her trips, she carried handfuls of cash, and she and Tony lived in a brand-new apartment paid for by Jeffrey Epstein. She was on call to go over to his house at virtually all hours of the day and night and dropped everything in a split second when the call came in. She would sometimes leave town for weeks at a time.
When she finally confessed to Tony that she was being paid for sex, he didn’t freak out for long. Her “work” for Epstein was supporting a lifestyle to which he had quickly grown accustomed. Plus, when Virginia was home, she was devoted to him, which he liked.
When she was not at home, she was experiencing a world that Tony couldn’t provide for her, then or ever. He rationalized that this whole thing was working out best for everyone. During discussions, though, something even more challenging came up. He learned that Virginia was made to sexually perform not only for Jeffrey, but for some of his friends. Then he learned that she was also with women, including Ghislaine.
Tony even remembered Virginia calling him when Ghislaine fixed her up with Prince Andrew in London and explaining over the phone how she did not want to have sex with him, but it was part of what she needed to do to continue their lifestyle.
In addition to telling me what he remembered about Virginia, he also filled in many blanks to questions Virginia herself did not know the answers to. That included what happened with Epstein after Virginia left for Australia. While she’d believed Jeffrey Epstein had forgotten about her in 2002, after she had called him to tell him she was not coming back and he hung up on her, apparently that was not the case.
For months after she left, Epstein or someone on his behalf contacted Tony asking where she was. Tony, of course, really didn’t know. And Epstein, who was a human lie detector, knew from their conversations that Tony was telling the truth. They had something in common, Jeffrey and Tony. Virginia left both of them, at the same time. Epstein pounced on that common ground. Tony’s financial source was gone, yet he was still accustomed to a lifestyle that required money.
“Do you want to make some cash?” Jeffrey asked him. “If you have any girls, bring them over and I’ll pay you.” Tony began to do just that. He picked up girls from the high school, from parties, from friends, from friends of friends, and anywhere else he could find them. He knew there was only one requirement: they had to be young. Epstein told him so.
But Tony quickly ran out of girls. He was getting older. By this time, he was almost twenty-one and no longer hanging out with sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds. This excuse didn’t work for Epstein, though. The calls he made to Tony were increasingly aggressive. Sometimes they came from Epstein directly. At other times, it was a British-accented female voice on the other end of the line telling Tony to bring new girls for Jeffrey. At one point the woman identified herself as Ghislaine Maxwell.
When I got off the phone with Tony, it was even less obvious to me why Maxwell’s attorneys wanted Tony to testify and wanted it badly. Maybe it was because they knew he was still mad at Virginia, and that was enough. What’s more, I had no way of locking him into what he had told me on the phone. So even though it seemed unlikely he would change his story and lie, we stuck to the original plan and took Virginia to his deposition. If he thought she was going to be there and she didn’t show up, that was certainly something that could trigger an angry fake story.
While the substance of his deposition is under seal, I can say this: Virginia showed up, Tony showed up, and Tony told the truth. It was strange being in the room. Virginia had a husband and a family whom she loved, and Tony had a life she wasn’t part of, but it was obvious to me that merely seeing her was what Tony needed to put this chapter behind him. To this day, I have no idea why Maxwell’s attorneys worked so hard to get Tony under oath, but I’m glad they did.
Piece by piece, we were tightening the attack on Maxwell through these different witnesses. Our chessboard was looking pretty good and more witnesses were popping up, almost daily. While the focus of this particular lawsuit was Maxwell, our investigation was uncovering pieces of the bigger puzzle, which was dangerous for Epstei
n.
FORTY-ONE RANSOME
THE MAXWELL CASE WAS GETTING more public attention as we got closer to our May 15, 2017, trial date. We were constantly chasing leads. Often witnesses cold-called us out of nowhere.
In October 2016, Paul Cassell got an interesting call from a woman who said her name was Sarah Ransome. She began by telling him she, too, had been victimized by Jeffrey Epstein with Ghislaine’s help and she wanted to assist Virginia in any way she could. Paul told her that there was a sizable legal team working for Virginia and he didn’t want to make Sarah repeat to them what she was telling him on the phone. He would arrange for everyone who needed to hear her story to be on the phone with her at the same time. He told her that in the meantime, we just needed to know the time period in which she was involved with Epstein so we could check our records and cross-reference her history with the evidence in our possession.
She told Paul that she was with Epstein and Maxwell from 2006 into 2007. I had reviewed Epstein’s flight logs so many times that I nearly knew them by heart at that point. I recognized her name from the logs immediately.
Brittany and I went over to the Boies Schiller Flexner office in Fort Lauderdale and sat at the end of the grand conference room table surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking everything between downtown and the ocean. There was a conference phone separating us from Sigrid; another brilliant Boies Schiller Flexner lawyer, Meredith Schultz; and her paralegal, Sandy Perkins. We had copies of flight logs, message pads, photographs, and the black book lying around the table for everyone to cross-reference as we heard the details of Sarah’s story for the very first time.
Sarah was in Barcelona, Spain, and the phone connection between us was bad. It also took me at least five minutes to familiarize myself with her South African accent well enough to understand her. She explained that she had been following Virginia’s story and had wanted to call us for years, but she had failed to do so out of a deep-seated fear of Epstein and Maxwell.
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