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Documents included in the Department of Justice’s January release of files pertaining to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein show that Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, gave $60,000 to a girls soccer club in Maryland between 2004 and 2006.
The donations from Epstein’s C.O.U.Q. Foundation were made around the same time prosecutors have said he was abusing underage girls, and just as he started to face legal repercussions in Florida.
It’s not clear why the foundation donated to the club in Maryland, a successful girls team called the Freestate Shooters. Epstein had donated to other youth sports, including his employee’s son baseball pursuits.
The Freestate Shooters have since rebranded to Maryland United FC, and said in a statement to Front Office Sports on Friday that the club was “entirely unaware of any allegations or criminal activity” related to Epstein’s foundation at the time of the donations.
“All correspondence was conducted strictly via email,” said Maryland United. “No players, staff, or family members ever had personal contact with any representative of the foundation. Our club stands with the victims and joins the many other charitable organizations in expressing our profound sympathy for those impacted by this criminal behavior.”
On August 20, 2004, Maxwell received an email from the Shooters’ manager thanking her for donating $10,000 to the U-15 girls team. The email said her contribution would help cover indoor training during the winter, coaching costs, and new uniforms, and instructed her how to fill out and mail the check.
Three days later, the donation was made by the C.O.U.Q. Foundation, for which Maxwell served as treasurer, according to the filings.
The C.O.U.Q. Foundation continued supporting Freestate Shooters the next two years, giving $25,000 in August 2005, and another $25,000 in August 2006, DOJ documents show.
The 2019 indictment against Epstein alleges he sexually exploited and abused underage girls as young as 14 years old between 2002 and 2005. (Victims have accused Epstein of abuse and trafficking covering a much longer period.) In July 2006, a month before the final donation to Freestate Shooters, a Palm Beach County grand jury indicted him on one state charge of soliciting prostitution and he was arrested. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor, and began a short and controversial prison sentence that permitted him to work out of his home office 12 hours a day.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s trafficking and sexual abuse of girls.
Webpage archives show that the homepage of the Shooters website displayed a thank you message to Epstein and Maxwell for about eight months between Oct. 2005 and June 2006, if not longer.
“The Team wishes to acknowledge the outstanding support provided by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeff Epstein of The C.O.U.Q. Foundation: Thank you ever so much Ghislaine and Jeff!!” reads the message, signed by “The Shooters’ Football Girls.”
The team won or was the finalist in the Maryland State Cup four times between 2004 and 2008, and was the 2007 US Club Soccer U-17 National Champion, according to the website.
Some of the players listed on the team website from the time went onto the NWSL, including Christine Nairn, who also played for the U.S. Women’s National Team, and Tiffany McCarty. Yewande Balogun was on the Nigerian women’s national team for the 2023 World Cup.
Gawker picked up on the donations in 2006 in a short article entitled “Meet Jeffrey Epstein’s Other Underage Girls.”
More sports donations
In Feb. 2005, C.O.U.Q. gave $5,000 to Titans Baseball Club, followed by $15,000 to New Jersey Firebirds Baseball in Jan. 2006, DOJ records show.
In 2012, the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation gave money to start a football training camp in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein’s infamous island was located. The donation also funded a “fitness camp for girls,” according to a press release.
The C.O.U.Q. Foundation also plays a role in the saga between Ohio State and billionaire Les Wexner, whose name is on the Buckeye’s football complex and other buildings around campus. Amid calls for Wexner’s name to be taken down, the billionaire recently testified about a $2.5 million anonymous donation from the C.O.U.Q. Foundation in 2007, around the same time that his wife, Abigail, made her own $2.5 million donation to rename the football building.
A 2020 review by Ohio State found that—despite a photo of a check from the C.O.U.Q. Foundation to the university—the donation “originated from the Wexner Children’s Trust and the Leslie H. Wexner Charitable Fund and not from Jeffrey Epstein.” Wexner said in a deposition earlier this month that he “never” facilitated donations from Epstein to the university or asked him to; Ohio State in 2020 said it would donate the $336,000 it received from Epstein over the years to a state initiative combating human trafficking.
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