Robert Maxwell (born Jan Ludvik Hoch, 1923-1991) was a Czech-born British media mogul who built one of the United Kingdom's largest publishing and newspaper empires, including Mirror Group Newspapers and Macmillan Publishers. He is the father of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate and convicted sex trafficker. Maxwell's funeral on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on November 10, 1991 was attended by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, President Chaim Herzog, and at least six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence, an extraordinary state reception for a private citizen.
Former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe had alleged before Maxwell's death that he was a long-time Mossad asset, and British and Israeli intelligence services both reportedly viewed him as an operative. His biographers, including Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon in "Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy" (2002), documented his role as a Mossad courier and conduit to Soviet-era intelligence contacts. Maxwell drowned in the Atlantic Ocean on November 5, 1991, after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine.
The circumstances were ruled accidental at an inquest, though Spanish and Israeli officials had reached conflicting conclusions. Within weeks of his death, auditors discovered he had looted approximately 526 million pounds from company pension funds, including 426 million from Mirror Group, Maxwell Communication Corporation, and AGB, leaving around 32,000 pensioners facing cuts of up to 50 percent to their retirement incomes. Ben-Menashe has stated he introduced Epstein to Maxwell in the early 1980s through arms deals and that Maxwell subsequently introduced Epstein into intelligence circles.
Steven Hoffenberg, Epstein's former business partner, told reporters before his 2022 death that Epstein had credited Maxwell's intelligence connections as a source of his elite access. The FBI's October 2020 Los Angeles field office memo, released in the 2026 DOJ document dump, noted a source's belief that Epstein had been a co-opted Mossad agent introduced to intelligence work through the Maxwell family connection.