Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell held

She helped ‘recruit minor girls’ for him

(FILES) In this file photo taken on September 03, 2003, Socialite Ghislaine Maxwell attends the Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche 57th Street Boutique Opening Party in New York City. - Maxwell, the former girlfriend of late financier Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested in the United States on July 2, 2020, by FBI officers investigating his sex crimes, multiple US media outlets reported. (Photo by Evan Agostini / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in the U.S. by the FBI on Thursday on charges she helped procure underage sex partners for financier Jeffrey Epstein.

An indictment made public on Thursday said Maxwell, who lived for years with Epstein and was his frequent travel companion on trips around the world, facilitated Epstein’s crimes by “helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse ” girls as young as 14. It also said she participated in the sexual abuse.

Epstein killed himself in a federal detention center in New York last summer while awaiting trial.

Maxwell has, for years, been accused by many women of recruiting them to give Epstein massages, during which they were pressured into sex. Those accusations, until now, never resulted in criminal charges.