An interim administrator has been appointed to oversee Virginia Giuffre’s estate after she died without a valid will, meaning several lawsuits that had been put on hold can now resume.
Giuffre, 41, died in April at a small Western Australian farm 80 kilometers north of Perth.
On Monday, the WA Supreme Court appointed lawyer Ian Torrington Blatchford to take interim control of her estate, believed to be worth millions.
The estate is also likely to include leftover money from a reported £12m out-of-court settlement that Giuffre received in 2022 from Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – formerly Prince Andrew – after she alleged he sexually abused her when she was 17. He has denied the allegations.
Blatchford’s A$400-an-hour appointment means legal proceedings running from Perth to New York can go ahead.
The first bid was made by Giuffre’s sons, Christian and Noah, to be appointed administrator of the intestate estate.
But Supreme Court documents show that Giuffre’s attorney, Carrie Louden, and her housekeeper, Cheryl Myers, previously launched a legal challenge to block the brothers from taking possession of the property.
Monday’s court order states that “the administrator is appointed as the legal representative of the deceased in any legal proceedings or arbitration to which the deceased was a party before his death”.
The fact that Giuffre died without a valid will led to a high-profile defamation case filed in October 2021 by Rina Oh – who was known as Rina Amen at the time.
Like Giuffre, Oh says she was abused by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
She was suing Giuffre for US$10 million in New York federal court over her social media posts and statements made in a memoir and podcast published in October 2020, in which Oh says she was falsely portrayed as an accomplice of Epstein rather than one of his victims.
Oh’s claims that the allegations against him resulted in “catastrophic” reputational damage were repeated by the international media.
The dispute played out in tit-for-tat lawsuits in state and federal New York courts.
It also includes a December 2022 countersuit filed by Giuffre, which alleges Oh played an abusive role within Epstein’s circle, cutting her off during sadomasochistic encounters while Epstein watched, according to court documents. Oh strongly denies the allegations.
“I still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, especially when I’m asked to provide more documents and study discovery materials and look at court documents. I get flashbacks,” Oh told the Guardian before Blatchford’s appointment.
“We’ve been waiting for the property to be established. It’s been six years, and I want to finish it.”
In April this year, a New York appeals court ruled that Oh’s defamation claim could continue against Giuffre’s estate, as civil liabilities survive the defendant’s death.
Now that an interim administrator has been appointed, Oh’s legal team will be able to formally serve the estate and resume proceedings.
Blatchford declined to comment on the complex legal legacy he had been appointed to manage.
Monday’s WA Supreme Court orders detail four “ongoing and other legal proceedings”.
The list includes a 2015 defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell that was resolved in Giuffre’s favor and an “arbitration” involving American lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Giuffre dropped the defamation suit against Dershowitz in 2022.
The WA court orders also state that “the Administrator is authorized as the legal personal representative of the deceased to do all things necessary in the exercise of that power in relation to the deceased’s memoir ‘Nobody’s Girl'”, which was co-written with journalist Amy Wallace.
At the beginning of the book, Wallace shares details of Giuffre’s difficult final months, which included numerous health problems.
Giuffre originally gained international fame for the Mountbatten-Windsor case, which was filed in New York and under the Child Victims Act.
It alleges that Epstein trafficked Ghislaine Maxwell to her London townhouse, Epstein’s New York mansion and his private island.
In May this year, Giuffre’s father Sky Roberts claimed on Piers Morgan Uncensored that: “There’s no way she would have committed suicide… someone came at her.”
A WA Police spokesperson said this week that Giuffre’s death was not being treated as suspicious.
“Major crime detectives are preparing a report for the coroner,” the spokesperson told the Guardian.
The WA Coroners Court could not give a time frame for when the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Giuffre’s death would be completed.
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