Bobbi Sternheim Defends High-Profile Clients, Including Ghislaine Maxwell
Bobbi Sternheim, Ghislaine Maxwell's New York criminal attorney, has built her net worth defending high-profile clients. Will her experience help Maxwell's appeal?
June 29 2022, Updated 11:48 a.m. ET
Accused sex abuse trafficker and Jeffery Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell isn’t the worst person New York criminal attorney Bobbi Sternheim has ever defended. Sternheim has built her net worth defending bad guys and even terrorists. Keep reading to learn more about Sternheim and Maxwell's sentencing.
Although there isn’t a lot of information available about Sternheim’s exact net worth, the seasoned trial attorney has defended some high-profile cases through the New York firm Fasulo Braverman & DiMaggio, LLP.
Sternheim joined Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense team in 2020.
Sternheim joined Maxwell’s legal team in October 2020. Maxwell, a British socialite, was accused of sex trafficking underage girls for sex offender Jeffery Epstein. Epstein, an American financier, was arrested in 2019 for child sex trafficking. He committed suicide in jail before he faced the charges in court.
During the trial, Sternheim stressed that Maxwell has been rehabilitated since the crimes occurred many years ago. She asked the court to be lenient and painted Epstein as the true criminal.
According to the Department of Justice, on December 29, 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of “conspiracy to entice minors to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.”
Judge Alison Nathan didn't buy the defense and sentenced Maxwell to 20 years in prison.
Despite Sternheim's attempt to portray Maxwell as Epstein's unwitting accomplice, Judge Alison Nathan didn't buy it. On June 28, 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison plus five years of supervised release. She was also fined $750,000. Sternheim said that Maxwell plans to appeal the sentence.
Sternheim says Maxwell is taking the brunt of the punishment that should have gone to Epstein. Will Sternheim and Maxwell be able to successfully appeal the sentencing? Only time will tell.
Sternheim has taken on numerous high-profile cases in the past, so she has experience on her side.
Sternheim defended an aide to Osama bin Laden.
Sternheim’s most notable case was in 2015 when she defended Osama bin Laden henchman Khaled al-Fawwaz, who was accused of the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The bombings killed 224 people, including about a dozen Amercians.
After al-Fawwaz was convicted of conspiring to kill Americans in the bombing, Sternheim said she was “disappointed,” according to the New York Post.
“Trying a pre-9/11 terrorism case in a post-9/11 era within blocks from the World Trade Center ensured that Mr. al-Fawwaz could never receive a truly fair trial by a truly impartial jury,” Sternheim said in 2015, according to the New York Post.
A year after the al-Fawwaz trial, Sternheim was defending another terrorist, Minh Quang Pham, who admitted to a plot to blow up London’s Heathrow Airport. Quam’s defense was that he took on the suicide mission to escape a terrorist training camp in Yemen, the New York Post reported. The judge didn’t buy it and sentenced Pham to 40 years in jail.
Sternheim is a highly respected New York attorney.
Despite her penchant for representing some bad characters, Sternheim is highly respected as a leading criminal defense attorney. She has been named a New York “Super Lawyer” for over a decade from 2010–2021. She's the first and only female recipient of the New York Criminal Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in the Profession. She also holds Top Secret/SCI Clearance.
According to her bio on the Fasulo Braverman & DiMaggio website, Sternheim has tried international organized crime and racketeering conspiracies, international terrorism offenses, international telemarketing fraud, capital murder, and interstate transport of pornographic media.
“Bobbi Sternheim is a highly respected and seasoned trial lawyer, advocating for her clients both inside and outside the courtroom. She has built a reputation as a leading criminal defense lawyer experienced in handling a wide variety of matters in federal and state court for individual and corporate clients. A recognized leader in the local and national criminal defense bar for litigating difficult and complex cases, she uses her courtroom and advocacy skills in New York and beyond,” her bio on the firm website reads.