Ian Robert Maxwell (June 10, 1923 – November 5, 1991) was born in Solotvino (then part of Czechoslovakia, now part of Ukraine), as Jan Ludvik Hoch. He became an officer in the British army during World War II, and afterwards a publisher and Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham (1964–1970). He became involved in publishing enterprises, forming Pergamon Press. Later, he became the owner of Mirror Group Newspapers. He founded The European weekly newspaper to encourage interest in the European Community.

Maxwell's business practices were often considered questionable, but he sued many of those who implied that he was dishonest, notably Private Eye magazine.

In 1971, a Department of Trade and Industry report stated that Maxwell was "not in our opinion a person who can be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a public company".

He died under mysterious circumstances on November 5th 1991, apparently falling into the sea from his yacht, the Lady Ghislane, moored off the Canary Islands. It is thought that other forces were involved in his death.

Shortly before he died, a self-proclaimed former Mossad officer called Ari ben-Menashe approached a number of news organizations in Britain and America with the allegation that Maxwell, who was Jewish, was a long-time Mossad spy and that, among other things, he had told the Mossad that Mordechai Vanunu had passed to Britain's Sunday Times a story about Israel's nuclear arsenal. No evidence was offered in support of this claim.

Maxwell's death served to heighten interest in the Mossad allegations, and stories now abound about how he allegedly helped the Mossad for years, and how they supposedly killed him because he threatened to reveal information about them unless they gave him millions of dollars to prop up his empire. Again, no evidence for these claims has ever emerged.

At the time of his death, he was under immense financial pressure from Goldman Sachs, who were selling shares of his company pledged by a loan they had given to him, which would have triggered a bear raid and possibly bankrupt Maxwell.

He had over 450 companies, most notably the Mirror Group, Maxwell Communications Corportation (his largest company), Robert Maxwell Group, Robert Maxwell Holdings, Bishopsgate Group and the Headington Group. These companies controlled every business he owned. This did not include Pergamon Press, his first major company, which was sold in 1989. His companies were indebted massively, with Robert Maxwell Group owing more than £1billion by the end of April 1991. They owed hundreds of millions of pounds to Mirror Group Pension Trusts. These debts were never repaid in their entirity, and pensioners of the Mirror Group still fight for their pensions to be repaid in full.

The Mirror Group was floated in May 1991 to prop up Maxwell's companies. His comapnies were in dire straits financially but that was hidden in order to maintain his appearance of an extraordinary businessman with a midas touch. He attempted to repay the monies stolen by investing in gilts, a form of Government Bond (a fixed-income security) through several obscure companies including a business called Visaford, part of Headington Group, but his attempts ultimately failed. He had to sell stakes in various public companies as part of a disposal programme in 1990/1991, but only after his death did it become clear that Maxwell had embezzled millions of pounds from the pension fund of Mirror Group Newspapers to support his lifestyle and failing companies.

His country house, Headington Hall, situated in the county of Oxfordshire in Southern England, was sold off and his penthouse atop his office building in Holborn, Central London, England, was turned into a successful Michelin starred restaurant. His belongings were auctioned off when his companies were being liquidated or sold off and his office buildings were eventually demolished towards the end of the 1990s. The headquarters of J. Sainsbury PLC, the UK Supermarket company, now stands in their place.

The Maxwell Communications Corporation was ultimately liquidated, but small parts of the company still live on today. MacMillan, the publisher, merged with Pan Books to create Pan-MacMillan. Pergamon-AGB International, a Market Research company, lives on as AGB International and is now part of a major advertising company. Mirror Group Newspapers PLC was renamed Mirror Group and merged later in approximately 2000 with UK regional newspaper group Trinity Newspapers to form Trinity Mirror PLC. Official Airline Guides, a US publisher of reference books for the aviation industry, purchased in 1990 for $750 million, still lives on as well.

Maxwell's paper The European was closed in the mid 1990s after being bought by the billionaire Barclay Brothers, owners of Scotsman and Telegraph newspapers in the UK. The Barclays realised a loss of many millions of pounds.

Soon before Maxwell's death, it is rumoured that he considered bying El Al, the Israeli national airline, a major Israeli bank or Paramount Pictures, the hugely successful US film company. The latter would have cost Maxwell approximately 10 billion dollars at the time and was later bought by US media giant Viacom Incorporated, controlled by Sumner Redstone, which owns MTV Networks and Nickelodeon. Maxwell did, until 1990/1991, own 50% of MTV Europe but he sold that stake to raise cash to pay off debts.

After Maxwell's death, a report was issued after lengthy research and investigations by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) detailing serious failings in the MAxwell companies and primarily in the Mirror Group Newspapers flotation.

Robert Maxwell's sons, Kevin Maxwell and Ian Maxwell , were acquitted of any involvement in the Mirror Group Pension Trust fraud after a criminal trial which was rumoured to be one of the most costly to the UK taxpayer in history.

Maxwell was buried on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem.

External links

• Short BBC profile of Robert Maxwell http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1249739.stm
• Accountancy Age timeline http://www.accountancyage.com/News/1119931
• Department of Trade and Industry report on Maxwell's purchase of the Mirror Group http://www.dti.gov.uk/cld/mirrorgroup/
• Biography http://www.ketupa.net/maxwell.htm