Czech Jan Ludwig Hoch aka Robert Maxwell
Czech Jan Ludwig Hoch
Czech Jan Ludwig Hoch represented a special breed of European business men for whom even the sophisticated business culture of Goldman Sachs was no deterrent.
Also known as Robert Maxwell, he continued to make Goldman Sachs London offers the staff thought they could not refuse. Goldman Sachs then was the new and eager kid on the block in London, and while it was no secret that the local financial community had become weary of the newspaper tycoon, Goldman Sachs went ahead boldly with Maxwell where no-one had gone before. To make a long and tortuous story short - pension fund money legally belonging to Maxwell’s employees, was moved around a bit, eventually to never be seen again - with the unwitting help of Goldman Sachs.
It goes like this:
Maxell moved the pension fund money to a new account not related to the funds. Then he asked Goldman Sachs to move it – but not back to where it came from – but to somewhere else. To some Luxembourg-managed fund to be exact. Ostensibly to invest the money on better terms. This is how £ 400 million of pension fund cash left British shores, never to be returned.
The cultural difference between New York and London was that the experts from the New York bred Goldman Sachs did not believe Robert Maxwell was capable to doing any such thing. London bankers however probably would have raised eyebrows had he proposed such a scheme to them.
T'Rati:
Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs
Robert Maxwell Robert Maxwell