Following the arrest of pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein last Saturday, many outlets have turned their attention to his longtime confiante, socialite heiress Ghislaine Maxwell - who has been accused by three women of procuring and training young girls to perform massage and sexual acts on the 66-year-old registered sex offender and his associates.

Maxwell, 57, comes from money. Her father was publisher Robert Maxwell - who himself faced accusations of being a Mossad double (and possibly triple) agent and a "bad character" who was "almost certainly financed by Russia," according to the British Foreign Office. Robert Maxwell died in 1991 when he fell from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine - however the circumstances surrounding his demise have been rife with speculation (including that it was a Mossad assassination - a theory which attorney and longtime Epstein associate Alan Dershowitz slammed in a 2003 op-ed).

It is unknown exactly how Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell met - however they reportedly dated around 1992, shortly after her father's death. After breaking up, they remained good friends. In 1995, Epstein renamed a now-defunct Palm Beach company "Ghislaine Corp," which was dissolved in 1998 per the Wall Street Journal. In 2003, Epstein described Maxwell as his "best friend," who was not on his payroll - yet "seems to organize much of his life."

The Oxford-educated Maxwell, described by many as a man-eater (she flies her own helicopter and was recently seen dining with [Bill]Clinton at Nello’s on Madison Avenue), lives in her own townhouse a few blocks away. Epstein is frequently seen around town with a bevy of comely young women but there has been no boldfaced name to replace Maxwell. “You may read about Jeffrey in the social columns, but there is much more to him than that,” says Jeffrey T. Leeds of the private equity firm Leeds Weld & Co. -New York Magazine (2002)

Maxwell also attended Chelsea Clinton's wedding - and has been linked to other prominent people such as Prince Andrew, Donald Trump and Alan Dershowitz.

Here’s Ghislaine Maxwell, by many accounts Jeffrey Epstein’s “pimp” and “groomer of girls” at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. pic.twitter.com/leBUwqoWnT — Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) July 7, 2019

Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Roberts - who claims to have seen Bill Clinton on Epstein's infamous island while she was being sex-trafficked.

Accusations of recruiting underage girls

Maxwell was accused by allgeged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre of recruiting the then-15-year-old into sexual slavery while she was working at a towel girl at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.

Giuffre asserts in her complaint that Maxwell, the sole defendant in the suit and the daughter of late publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, routinely recruited underaged girls for Epstein and was doing so when she approached the $9-an-hour locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 1999 about giving massages to the wealthy investment banker. Giuffre alleges that Maxwell ultimately trained her in how to give “massages” to Epstein that involved sex acts and, essentially, prostitution. When Maxwell publicly denied the allegations and called Giuffre a liar in 2015, that gave her the opening to head to federal court and file the defamation suit now headed for trial. -Politico

According to court filings, Maxwell was said to have hired, supervised and fired household staff, while directing the visits of dozens of "massage therapists" to Epstein's residence, according to the Journal.

In depositions taken in 2009 and 2010 as part of civil lawsuits against Mr. Epstein, household employees said Ms. Maxwell was a central figure in Mr. Epstein’s private life. Several said Ms. Maxwell hired, supervised, and fired household staff, while directing the visits of dozens of "massage therapists”—typically young women. Juan Alessi, who said in one of the depositions that he served as the Palm Beach house manager from around 1992 through 2002, described a basket of sex toys in Ms. Maxwell’s bathroom closet. He said he would find them around when he cleaned up after visits from the young women. -WSJ

Maxwell was accused in a 2014 court filing of being a "co-conspirator in Epstein's sexual abuse" and of taking "numerous sexually explicit pictures of underage girls involved in sexual activities," which included Giuffre. Maxwell has called the claims "obvious lies."

The accusations were made as early as 2009 in lawsuits covering conduct that allegedly occurred from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Together with the federal indictment in New York against Mr. Epstein, the civil cases describe an enterprise centered on procuring and sexually exploiting young women, and intimidating them into silence. One accuser in a 2017 lawsuit called Ms. Maxwell “the highest-ranking employee” of that alleged enterprise, a role in which she was said to have had managed Mr. Epstein’s household and his sex life. -WSJ

While Maxwell hasn't been charged in connection with any of Epstein's activities, however more information on their relationship is expected to be revealed in the coming weeks. Prior to Epstein's arrest, a federal appeals court in New York ordered the unsealing of up to 2,000 pages of court documents from a 2017 lawsuit against Maxwell - a decision her attorney says they will challenge.