Arrests of 2 Maxwell Sons in London Reported

Kevin and Ian Maxwell, the two sons of the late publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, were arrested this morning by police working with fraud investigators, the national news agency Press Association reported.

The news agency, quoting police sources, said Maxwell adviser Larry Trachtenberg was also arrested.

The Serious Fraud Office, a government agency, is investigating the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars from Maxwell pension funds.

Press Association said the three men were taken to east London’s Snow Hill police station for questioning.

Robert Maxwell, whose international media empire collapsed after his death last fall, used hundreds of millions of dollars from the pension funds of public companies he controlled to pay off debts and cover operating losses at his private firms. His publishing empire included the London newspaper the Daily Mirror and New York’s Daily News.

One week ago, the British court-appointed receiver of Maxwell’s companies, Peter Phillips, said several million dollars had been moved through European banks in the past few weeks in an attempt to evade his grasp.

Phillips would not say who was shifting the money, but questions have previously been raised about whether Maxwell’s sons were involved.

Robert Maxwell’s body was found on Nov. 5 floating in the Atlantic off the Canary Islands, and the Spanish coroner ruled he most likely died of natural causes after falling overboard.

But skeptics questioned whether he was murdered or killed himself as his business holdings unraveled because of crushing debts.