Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal is in jeopardy as her estranged husband refuses to pay her legal bills

Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal against her 20-year jail sentence for sexual abuse lies in tatters – because her estranged husband has refused to pay her lawyers.

Scott Borgerson, 46, who secretly married Maxwell, 60, in 2016, controls her fortune after she transferred up to £20million into a trust fund before her arrest in 2020.

But Borgerson ended the relationship with Maxwell during a phone call to the New York prison where she was awaiting trial.

Now he has been accused of failing to pay a $900,000 legal bill to her defence team and provide the $1million required to challenge the conviction. 

Until the cash is transferred, her legal team is unlikely to meet a January deadline, forcing her to face the prospect she might die behind bars.

Ghislaine Maxwell with her now estranged husband Scott Borgerson pictured at an NGO event. Maxwell’s friends now fear her attempt at appeal could be in jeopardy over claims her husband is refusing to pay her legal costs

Maxwell is pictured during exercise behind the wire fence of her prison in Florida earlier this year

Maxwell’s pals fear he is delaying their divorce and her access to money as a negotiating ploy.

‘He thinks if he drags it out, she will give him most of the money,’ said one. ‘She is in jail… not much she can do from there.’

But a legal source said: ‘He doesn’t trust what Maxwell’s lawyers are telling him.’

Maxwell and Borgerson reportedly met in Iceland in 2013.

Her relationship with San Diego billionaire Ted Waitt had collapsed and friends say she was vulnerable. Borgerson was still married to first wife Rebecca, mother of his young son and daughter. 

The couple married three years later. 

But in 2019, after her pal Jeffrey Epstein was found hanged in his cell while awaiting trial for sex abuse, Maxwell went into hiding, moving from house to house.

Few knew she and Borgerson had married till it was referenced by prosecutors at her 2020 trial.

‘Her brothers were astonished to find out that not only was she married, but she had made all her money over to Scott,’ said a source close to the family.

He did not visit her in the New York jail once, say friends, and failed to attend any of the trial.

The disgraced socialite could be set to die behind bars after being shunned by her estranged husband

Colorado law firm Huddon, Morgan and Foreman, which acted for Maxwell in the trial, has filed a lawsuit against her and brother Kevin for nearly $900,000.

Court documents showed she received tens of millions of dollars from Epstein and had sold her New York home for $15 million.

Borgerson dismissed the claims as ‘fake news’. He pointed to legal testimony from Huddon that he ‘expressed cooperation, transparency and honesty’ in discussions.