Connor Stringer and Victoria Ward
Virginia Giuffre’s family members have raised questions over a “significant amount of missing money” in the ongoing row over what is believed to be her multimillion-dollar estate.
Giuffre, who was 41 when she died in Western Australia in April, is thought to have amassed an estimated $US22 million ($33.1 million) fortune through victim compensation funds and civil lawsuit settlements relating to the years of abuse she suffered at the hands of the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein.
This includes an estimated $US12 million payment she received from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, to settle a sexual abuse claim brought against him in 2022. Andrew has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
However, court documents filed in the legal battle over her estate in Australia on Friday value it at just $472,000 – a legal threshold that dictates how assets in Australia are divided when there is no will. It may increase when more assets are discovered.
Her lawyer and caregiver put the value at $501,000 or more. It is not clear where the money has gone.
According to the legal submissions, the estate is made up of business assets, jewellery, cars, a horse, and personal items recovered at the farm where she took her own life in Neergabby, north of Perth.
Giuffre’s family are understood to be privately concerned about the estate’s valuation and the potential that millions of dollars could be missing.
They are fighting to stop her husband, Robert Giuffre, who filed for divorce two months before she died, from receiving the money.
Giuffre claimed that her husband was controlling and, at times, banned her from being around other men.
“It’s about time that there is a spotlight on Robbie’s control over Virginia,” a source with knowledge of the proceedings told the London Telegraph.
Much of Giuffre’s settlement money is thought to have been paid into the Witty River Family Trust. The trust was established in 2020 and lists Giuffre and her husband as co-directors with equal shares.
If the trust had co-trustees, generally there must be unanimous decision-making about the money.
It has sparked fears that the money given in compensation may have been spent or transferred.
Robert Giuffre, a former mixed martial arts instructor, had not worked since 2017, Virginia Giuffre claimed.
Although Giuffre was separated from her husband of 22 years at the time of her death, under the state’s spousal law, he could inherit at least a third of her wealth.
Relatives and friends in Australia and the US have argued that she did not want her husband to benefit and changed her will after she accused him of domestic abuse. Her sons told a judge last Friday that they did not believe she was mentally fit enough to write a will at that time. Her husband has not commented.
He has previously been accused by Giuffre’s family members of having an erratic lifestyle.
“Hopefully, the court will order a full forensic audit of her estate,” the source said, adding that if it is found that Robert Giuffre knew where the missing fortune is, “He will certainly have some explaining to do,” the source said.
Giuffre’s younger brother, Sky Roberts, and her half-brother, Danny Wilson, have long challenged Robert Giuffre’s right to the money.
The legal argument over who should be named administrators of the estate was heard in public for the first time at the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth on November 28.
The sons are being challenged by Karrie Louden, one of Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers, and Cheryl Myers, her housekeeper and carer, who has described herself as being like a “second mother” to the sex abuse survivor in her final years.
The Giuffre brothers reject the validity of their mother’s purported final wishes, which she emailed in an “implied will” to Lisa Foster at PwC in late February.
She stated that she wanted her money to go to the children, with specific parameters, as well as to other family members.
Inheritors stand to benefit from the potential royalties from Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl, which detailed abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of powerful men.
Roberts and Wilson are also said to want to assume control of her charity, Speak Out, Act, Reclaim, which Giuffre did not manage to get off the ground before she died.
Up to $US3 million of the settlement paid by Andrew was ringfenced for the charity and remains in an escrow account managed by a third party.
As well as the settlement from Andrew, Giuffre received $US500,000 from Epstein in 2009. She also received an undisclosed payment after settling a civil case with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s one-time girlfriend, in 2017.
The British socialite is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in the US after being convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021.
Giuffre also owned four properties, including a six-bedroom seafront home in Ocean Reef, Perth, and a ranch in Neergabby.
A representative for Robert Giuffre was contacted for comment. He has previously declined to comment on allegations of domestic abuse, citing the ongoing legal action.
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