The daughter of a media mogul, Kevin Maxwell, has been slapped with lawsuits from her own legal team. But despite the fact that she allegedly owes them upwards of $20 million, she hasn’t been paying.

Her late father’s Mirror Group media empire collapsed and landed him in bankruptcy with debts of over £400 million. He was also acquitted on fraud charges in 1996.

1. Maxwell Communications

The Maxwell family is famous all over the world for their stronghold in the publishing industry. However, some members have gotten into the news for unsavory reasons. For example, Robert Maxwell was reportedly in extreme debt at the time of his death in November of 1991. And his daughter Ghislaine is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring.

Kevin Maxwell is the eighth child of Elisabeth (née Meynard), a French-born Holocaust scholar, and Robert Maxwell, a Czechoslovak-born British publishing tycoon. He attended Marlborough College and Oxford University before he joined the family business. In September 2018, he along with his brother Ian founded a UK-based think tank called Combating Jihadist Terrorism. Their goal is to understand terrorism and its causes.

2. Macmillan Incorporated

Kevin Maxwell is the second son of the late media tycoon Robert. Along with his brother Ian, he was involved in severe financial problems that arose from the collapse of their father’s Mirror Group media empire. They were acquitted of fraud charges in 1996.

According to the La Hougue files, he and his brother clandestinely moved millions of dollars into offshore accounts in the 1990s and aughts. The transactions often involve complex webs of companies and trusts in multiple jurisdictions.

The brothers were involved in a number of property deals in the UK, including Stables Market and Earls Court Exhibition Centre. In 2011, Kevin was disqualified from being a company director for eight years following an inquiry into the collapse of construction firm Syncro.

3. Thelmonde

The Maxwell family name has become synonymous with infamy. Their patriarch, media tycoon Robert Maxwell, was in severe debt when he died and his daughter Ghislaine is currently serving 20 years in prison for her involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The family has a habit of using shell companies to dodge creditors, and La Hougue’s documents show that Kevin Maxwell sold huge amounts of Telemonde shares through them between June 23rd and 29th of 1999. This could be a case of stock manipulation, though it’s not clear if the shares had been fully paid for.

Besides the media empire, the Maxwells owned Oxford United football club and had significant stakes in Berlitz language schools and MTV Europe. Their eldest son Robert had a maxim that ‘confidence is like virginity, you can only lose it once’.

4. Syncro

In the 1990s, Maxwell was reportedly up to his neck in debt. He was also famous for his fiery temper — which is shown in the Tetris film when he yells at Kevin and anyone else who doesn’t do what he wants.

In 1991, Maxwell was forced to sell off two of his companies for PS440 million to cover his debts. He was also known for his penchant for misjudging people — punching one journalist in the head and firing him, all over a mistaken identity.

In the 2023 Apple TV Tetris biographic movie, he is portrayed as a scheming businessman who attempts to scupper Rogers and Pajitnov’s plans. The family’s byzantine financial world is also revealed, with Ghislaine using shell companies and making shifting declarations about her true net worth.

5. Combating Jihadist Terrorism

After Robert Maxwell died in 1991 it was discovered that the media tycoon was $4 billion in debt. It was also revealed that he had plundered employee pension funds to the tune of several hundred million pounds.

Kevin and his brother Ian were acquitted of fraud charges related to his father’s companies in 1996 but they could never recover their losses. They co-founded a media company called Telemonde but it was ultimately shut down.

Later, Kevin was disqualified from running a UK company for eight years after the collapse of a construction firm called Syncro. He also founded a think tank, Combating Jihadist Terrorism alongside his brother Ian. Currently, he’s involved in setting up large property deals. Including the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and Olympia in London.