In March 1991, Pergamon was sold to the Dutch group Elsevier for £440m. It appeared that Maxwell’s group of companies was beginning to run short of cash. The sale of Pergamon, supposedly a fundamental part of the Maxwell business empire, led to speculation about Maxwell’s financial difficulties. During this period Maxwell was also pledging shares in MCC as collateral for loans. What was later to become apparent was that Maxwell’s cash requirements were leading to a steady increase in indebtedness. But what only became clear later on was that Maxwell was also pledging shares in company pension funds as collateral for further loans. Why had the pension fund trustees not objected to this? In the case of MGN, Maxwell had removed the trade unionists from the pension fund and replaced them with his sons, Kevin and Ian Maxwell. Management of most of the pension fund was given over to the Maxwell controlled company Bishopsgate Investment Management Limited, which had taken the decision to invest in Maxwell-owned companies such as MCC.