DTI inspectors appointed to investigate Maxwell's publishing house Pergamon.

1970 Coopers' John Walsh appointed to audit Maxwell's main companies

1973 DTI inspectors say Maxwell could not be trusted to exercise 'proper stewardship' of a publicly quoted company

1984 Maxwell buys Mirror Group

1988 Maxwell buys book and journal publisher MacMillan

1990 Ill-fated audit of Maxwell's main companies undertaken; Maxwell attempts to disguise financial collapse of empire using secret 'loans' from Mirror Group pension fund

1991 Mirror Group floated

1991 Receivers appointed to Maxwell's personal estate

1992 DTI inspectors appointed to investigate MGN flotation

1995 Collapse of trial against Maxwell's sons Kevin and Ian

1996 Walsh dies. Complaints against him dropped

1998 JDS reveals complaints against four Coopers' partners for their 1990 audit of Maxwell's empire

1998 Price Waterhouse, and Coopers and Lybrand merge to create the world's largest accountancy firm

1999 PricewaterhouseCooopers receives record fine from JDS for shortcomings in Coopers' audit of accounts

1999 Coopers & Lybrand agrees to pay out £67.6m in settlement toMaxwell creditors

2001 DTI publish investigations into Mirror Group Newspapers