Virginia Giuffre died without a valid will now an Australian court has appointed an administrator

"An interim administrator has been appointed to oversee the estate of Virginia Giuffre after she died without a valid will, meaning multiple lawsuits that had been on hold can now resume. Giuffre, 41, died on a small Western Australian farm, 80km north of Perth, in April. On Monday, the WA supreme court appointed lawyer Ian Torrington Blatchford to take interim control of her estate, thought to be worth millions."

"The estate is likely to include what is left of a reported 12m out-of-court settlement 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 stretching from Perth to New York can proceed. There had previously been a bid by Giuffre's sons, Christian and Noah, to be appointed administrators of the intestate estate."

"The fact Giuffre died without a valid will stalled a high-profile defamation case filed in October 2021 by Rina Oh who at the time went by the name Rina Amen. Like Giuffre, Oh says she was abused by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She was suing Giuffre in a New York federal court for US$10m over her social media posts published in October 2020 and statements made in a memoir and a podcast, which Oh says wrongly portrayed her as an accomplice of Epstein, rather than one of his victims. Oh claims the allegations against her caused devastating reputational harm and were repeated by international media."

An interim administrator, lawyer Ian Torrington Blatchford, was appointed by the WA Supreme Court to take interim control of Virginia Giuffre's estate after she died without a valid will on a Western Australian farm in April. The estate is thought to be worth millions and likely includes what remains of a reported 12m out-of-court settlement Giuffre received in 2022 from Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. The A$400-per-hour appointment allows paused legal proceedings across jurisdictions from Perth to New York to resume. Giuffre's sons sought appointment as administrators while her lawyer Karrie Louden and housekeeper Cheryl Myers opposed that bid. The administrator will represent the deceased in pending proceedings and arbitration.

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