company while their well-documented fraud trial was in progress, according to a report in Saturday's Financial Times.

The report states that the brothers, who were cleared of fraud, worked for Bermuda-based start-up telecommunications company Telemonde Investments.

Telemonde leased capacity on transatlantic cables owned by Global Crossing and MCI Worldcom which it planned to resell to large corporate users, thus capitalising on the rising demand for telecom capacity.

Telemonde was initially a great success. Its rising stock price reached a peak of almost $9 which valued the group at several hundred million dollars.

At this point Kevin, who was the group's chairman, consolidated his holding in Telemonde by buying Equi-Tel, a private group, for up to $69 million. He was Equi-Tel's main shareholder along with Larry Trachtenberg, Robert Maxwell's former adviser who stood trial with the brothers. The company shared an address with Telemonde.

However a lot of new transatlantic telecom capacity came on stream and sent prices plummeting. Telemonde was involved with long-term contracts and suffered heavy losses.

Kevin Maxwell eventually renegotiated the long-term contracts on the books and finances improved somewhat. The company changed its focus and now describes itself as `a value-added manager of data capacity for corporate clients.' But Telemonde's share price has continued to fall, last week falling to just 17 cents.

BUSINESS BUC COURTS CTS