By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld Ghislaine Maxwell's conviction for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
The decision by the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means the British socialite will remain in a Florida prison, where she is serving a 20-year sentence.
A lawyer for Maxwell signaled she will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Maxwell, 62, was convicted in December 2021 on five charges for having recruited and groomed four underage girls for Epstein, her former boyfriend, to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
A three-judge panel rejected Maxwell's claim that Epstein's 2007 agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida not to be prosecuted there shielded her from being prosecuted in New York, where she was criminally charged in 2020.
It also rejected Maxwell's claims that her trial was tainted because one juror did not disclose that he had been sexually abused as a child, and that the sentence was too long.
Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes found Maxwell's punishment procedurally reasonable.
He cited the trial judge's assessment that the sentence reflected Maxwell's "pivotal role in facilitating the abuse of the underaged girls through a series of deceptive tactics," and the "significant and lasting harm it inflicted."
The scandal has tainted or destroyed the reputations of former friends including Britain's Prince Andrew and onetime Barclays CEO Jes Staley, who worked with Epstein while previously employed at JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM).
Epstein died by suicide at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell, five weeks after being arrested and charged with sex trafficking.
"We are obviously very disappointed by the court's decision and we vehemently disagree with the outcome," Maxwell's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said in a statement. "We are cautiously optimistic that Ghislaine will get the justice she deserves from the Supreme Court of the United States."
SCAPEGOATING CLAIM
In her appeal, Maxwell argued that references to the "United States" in Epstein's 2007 nonprosecution agreement signaled the government's intent to bar prosecutions nationwide of "potential co-conspirators," including four others named in the agreement.
A prosecutor countered that the mention of the United States was a throwaway reference, and Epstein's agreement was intended to bind only prosecutors in southern Florida.
Cabranes agreed, saying nothing in the agreement's text or negotiation history suggested it bound prosecutors in New York.
Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state prosecution charge and served 13 months in jail, an arrangement now widely considered too lenient.
Maxwell also argued in her appeal that prosecutors scapegoated her because Epstein was dead and the public demanded that someone else be held accountable.
Tuesday's decision did not address that argument.
Since Epstein died, his victims have recouped hundreds of millions of dollars from his estate, as well as from JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, which they accused of handling transactions that financed his misconduct.
Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for dozens of Epstein accusers, called Tuesday's decision "another step towards justice."
Maxwell is serving her sentence in a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. She is eligible for release in July 2037.