FREE ESSAY ON ROBERT MAXWELL

ROBERT MAXWELL

INTRODUCTION
Robert Maxwell, the infamous tycoon who is remembered as much for his personality and
ethics in his business dealings as he is for his accomplishments.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Soldier, publisher and patriot, a man who spoke 9 languages; in 1923 Robert Maxwell was
born in Czechoslovakia. He was and is a mystery in many respects. Even his birth name is
questionable.. Maxwell had many reasons to rebel against the norms of the world. One of
these was the Holocaust. Although Maxwell personally escaped the horrors of the
Holocaust, he lost his parents and four brothers and sisters to the Nazis. He fought with
the British against the Nazis and was awarded a British Military Cross for his wartime
accomplishments.
After the war Maxwell had seven children with his French-born wife Elizabeth. He would
soon begin work on his business empire as well. He was a very strong person who knew what
he wanted. Robert Maxwell was used to keep a high image even during bad times, he
depended on bankers and high society people to keep high credibility. This man was used
to having whatever he wanted wherever he was overall he led an extremely luxurious
lifestyle. 
BUSINESS DIVERSIONS
Between his death in 1991 and the end of World War II Robert Maxwell was able to build
one of the largest publishing and communications empires in the world. He accumulated
approximately two billion dollars worth of family assets and was the fifth or sixth
biggest media group in the world. 
His companies included the Mirror group of newspapers, Maxwell Communications, Nimbus
Records, P.F. Collier, Official Airline Guide, Prentice Hall Information Services,
Macmillan publishing, the Berlitz language schools, and Pergamon Press, a technical
publishing company.
The road to success was not straight up for Maxwell. He experienced numerous financial
ups and downs over the forty years following Word War II. Pergamon Press, one of his
first acquisitions had to be sold in the 1960s but Maxwell eventually bought it again and
was forced to resell the company during the 1980s. 
Publishing was not Maxwell's only pursuit. His companies also included numerous
television industry interests fifty percent ownership of MTV in Europe, twenty percent of
Central TV, twelve percent of the French TFI station and Maxwell Cable TV. Most of these
holdings are through Maxwell Entertainment Company, which also was a major provider of
European television programming. Maxwell's business interests also included online
pursuits such as the Official Airlines Guides, a front-runner in online flight
information and reservations. 
Only two years before his death Maxwell's finances were going down by 1990 he was running
out of cash he was secretly buying his own shares so that they maintained high prices.
Maxwell concealed his financial problems by secretly selling other peoples shares that
were deposited with Maxwell's recently established bank. He and his closest son Cavan
used these shares to raise loans. These secretly sold shares in FIRST TOKIO TRUST
investment fund were worth ?57 million. The funds directors discovered that shares were
missing and investigations took place at this stage.
He was desperate to repay his debts his next target were pension funds he offered in one
of the company's. With this company he was using advertising, encouraging customers to
stay and in return he was making promises. Among the pension funds; shares plumed by
Robert Maxwell, certificates of 25 Million shares clearly owed by the mirror pension
fund, bankers Goldman Sachs sold them on Maxwell's instruction. But proceeds were not
handed over to the pension funds instead it was paid from the banker straight to Maxwell.

He was smart he always chose companies or individuals he thought he could manage. Hence,
after a major disagreement with his personal assistant that left him, Maxwell was going
through depression because he felt lost and knew that she had all sorts of important
information. Pressure accumulated and he didn't know whom to speak too. 
His next attempt was when he went and bought the US Daily News, and was extremely popular
in the US while ignoring the empire back home. Meanwhile, directors of FIRST TOKIO
remained quiet about his business affairs because they knew they were in fault and
reputation was concerned. Maxwell was still stealing millions from wherever he could and
towards the end of 1991 bankers were demanding immediate repayment of loans.
At the time of his death Maxwell had approximately four hundred interrelated companies
and most of them in serious financial difficulties. 
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As mentioned in the introduction, Maxwell is more remembered for his personality and his
business ethics than he is for his accomplishments. Aside from his numerous personalities
he has been associated from everything from his close ties with the Israeli Intelligence
agency the Mossad, links with Israeli arms dealers and spies, and associations with the
Russian KGB. 
Even the events surrounding Maxwell's death remain a mystery. There is considerable
speculation that he was pushed into the ocean waters rather than falling in after a heart
attack as the official explanation details. Others speculate that, distressed over his
financial situation that had declined rapidly, he committed suicide and actually jumped
from the yacht. There is even speculation that he is not actually interned in his grave.

Robert Maxwell also appeared as a Polish cavalry officer, a French infantryman, and a
paratrooper major. Through it Maxwell was authorised, presumably as a part of his role in
British intelligence, to appear in any location in any uniform and rank he decided upon.
Interestingly, however, Maxwell's actual rank was only that of staff sergeant. 
Maxwell lived a life of luxury dining on the finest foods, residing in the finest hotels,
intermixing with the world's royalty, famous and powerful, yet his personal etiquette
were most of the time despicable to say the least. With his death his many secrets and
underhanded business dealings began to fall apart under public scrutiny. His companies
came under the investigation of both European and U.S. interests and these investigations
even include a probe by Britain's Serious Fraud Office, and this is exactly where ethics
comes into place. Robert Maxwell was doing all sorts of illegal activities, however
bankers and important officials were involved; they kept quiet and because of ignorance
it resulted as big costly mistakes. These important guardians weren't anyone, they
represented very important institutions such as:
-  Leuman Brothers
-  Goldman Sachs
-  Swiss Bank
After this case was in the open, lots of them got affected and indeed were thrown out. In
the Maxwell case, the boards of directors in his companies were to blame, they had to
limit his doings or oppose them. But however we should consider there positions and think
of what they could have done.
CONCLUSIONS
Maxwell was a freewheeling entrepreneur with aggressive public relations tactics. He
cared little of what people thought but only of what he could gain. He was powerful but
not well liked. During his life (or lives) he wove a web of mystery and intrigue, he
amassed a fortune and begun to lose a substantial portion of that fortune. With this
death it was discovered that many of his companies were broke and that much of his $4.5
billion in debts were based on multiply committed collateral. One of the most
incriminating of his life's actions was his unscrupulous use of $767 million from worker
pension funds under his control. Debates over his life and diversions, however, will loom
well into the future.
Perhaps Maxwell's life is best summed up by the Rupert Murdoch Sun's headline that ran
shortly after Maxwell's death: 
"MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE BIGGEST CROOK OF ALL?" 
BIBLIOGRAPHY
-  Robert Maxwell. VIDEO (The Downfall) 
-  Information online Inc. ROBERT MAXWELL: THE PASSING OF AN ERA.
-  McCarroll, Thomas; Anne Constable and Adam Zagorin. BUSINESS: SCANDAL Maxwell's
Plummet Burdened by huge, previously unreported debts.
-  Ward, Hiley. (1998, Feb 28). Flash! Splash! Crash!, Editor & Publisher.