Epstein network reached Sweden

Ghislaine Maxwell recruited young Swedish women through newspaper ads at Gothenburg luxury hotel, SVT reveals

Nordic Observer · March 18, 2026 at 04:58
  • Maxwell used newspaper advertisements to recruit young Swedish women to a luxury hotel in Gothenburg under the guise of hiring a personal assistant
  • Eva Andersson-Dubin, Epstein's Swedish ex-girlfriend and a prominent figure in New York society, reportedly helped facilitate the recruitment
  • The revelation places the Epstein trafficking network's operations directly on Swedish soil
  • No information has emerged on whether Swedish police or prosecutors were ever notified or investigated the Gothenburg operation

Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's convicted accomplice, placed advertisements in a Swedish newspaper seeking young women and invited respondents to a luxury hotel in Gothenburg, where she presented herself as looking for a personal assistant. SVT Nyheter reveals that the operation had direct assistance from Eva Andersson-Dubin, Epstein's Swedish ex-girlfriend and a well-known figure in New York's social elite.

The Gothenburg recruitment operation follows a pattern documented across multiple countries: Maxwell would identify young women through seemingly legitimate channels — modelling agencies, university campuses, classified advertisements — and funnel them into Epstein's orbit. That this apparatus extended to Sweden, using Swedish-language newspaper ads and a Swedish hotel as a staging ground, transforms the Epstein affair from a distant American courtroom drama into a domestic matter. Andersson-Dubin, a former Miss Sweden contestant who dated Epstein in the 1980s before marrying hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, would have provided precisely the local knowledge and cultural credibility needed to make the operation work on Swedish soil. A Swedish woman helping recruit other Swedish women through a familiar medium — a newspaper classified ad — removes the foreignness that might otherwise have raised suspicion.

SVT's investigation leaves several threads exposed. Which newspaper published the advertisements, and in which years? How many women responded and attended the hotel meetings? Whether any of those women subsequently ended up in Epstein's network of properties — the Manhattan townhouse, the Palm Beach estate, the Caribbean island — remains unaddressed. Most critically, there is no indication that Swedish police or prosecutors have ever investigated the Gothenburg operation. Maxwell was convicted in a US federal court in 2021 on sex trafficking charges and sentenced to twenty years. Andersson-Dubin has never been charged with any crime in any jurisdiction, though her name has appeared repeatedly in Epstein-related court documents.

Sweden's statute of limitations for procurement and trafficking offences depends on the severity of the crime, but the most serious charges carry limitation periods of up to fifteen years — or none at all, if the victim was under fifteen. Without knowing when the Gothenburg recruitment took place or what happened to the women who answered those ads, the question of whether Swedish jurisdiction could still apply remains open. What is clear is that the Epstein network did not merely touch Sweden through Andersson-Dubin's social connections. It ran an active recruitment operation in Sweden's second-largest city, advertised in print, conducted in a hotel lobby.

Maxwell is currently serving her sentence at FCI Tallahassee in Florida. The newspaper advertisements, presumably, are still in someone's archive.

Sources: SVT Nyheter