camelot23ca
Heir Presumptive
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2003
- Messages
- 2,160
It is entirely possible IMHO that Virginia Giuffre and/or her lawyers overestimated Andrew's wealth and made outrageous settlement demands well beyond Andrew's ability to pay. Most American have this misconception that British royals are billionaires as they confuse the Crown Estate (held in trust by the Queen in right of the Crown) with the Royal Family's private fortune.
I also agree it is somewhat odd that she is targeting Andrew specifically when, given Epstein's network of acquaintances, there are probably other far more wealthy men who might have abused her and whom she could go after.
Prince Andrew might perhaps be even more of a celebrity than other potential defendants, but he is not necessarily the best one to go after if Ms Giuffre's primary goal is financial compensation.
Ms. Giuffre’s legal team surely has the resources to make a good estimate of Andrew’s private fortune. I don’t think the team would be likely to make the rookie mistake of confusing private funds with family funds, or family funds vs the Crown Estate.
Andrew may not be the wealthiest man who was in Epstein’s social circle, but Giuffre’s team may think he’s in the sweet spot of being reasonably wealthy, reasonably well known to the public, and part of a family that needs to concern itself with public image more than people in that income bracket usually do. A random billionaire that no one has ever heard of could spend an unlimited amount of money, for however much time it took, to let this make its way through whatever process has to happen and ensure that, in the end, the woman in question got nothing.