are appalled that he misrepresented himself and his assets to them, and the media is appalled that he was able to take advantage of pensioners. However, had Maxwell succeeded in his plans, as he did for some time, it is likely that the hue and cry over his methods would be mitigated by the success of his enterprises. If, for example, he had been able to pay back the monies borrowed from the pension fund (which he would have done in an effort to cover up his activities, not out of a sense of altruism, most likely), and the borrowings had still come to light, he would have been chastised for having used such methods, but would have probably been able to avoid prosecution since, in the end, no harm would have been done.
It is the fact that Maxwell lost, that his empire unraveled around him, that causes the disdain among those in the financial community. Aside from the moral implications of borrowing funds that were never his to begin with, or of channeling funds into shell companies in order to obscure their origins, Maxwell committed the crime of being (f
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