MEDIA

Maxwell Used Funds as Liquid Finance, Lawyer Says: The late media magnate Robert Maxwell used pension fund assets to help finance his private companies, a defense lawyer in the fraud trial of his two sons said. Alun Jones, lawyer for Maxwell’s youngest son Kevin, told the jury that this was a common practice. “Robert Maxwell was using the pension funds as a source of liquid finance and was treating the pension funds as a vehicle for parking shares, or selling them back according to whether he needed cash,” Jones said during cross examination of Trevor Cook, who administered pension funds for Maxwell. Cook said he was aware of the practice. He also agreed that Maxwell was a one-man investment manager, making investment decisions for the pension funds alone.