Robert William Liversidge (11 June 1904 – 30 September 1994),[1] formerly Jacob (Jack) Perlsweig, was a British businessman whose activities sometimes attracted the attention of the police and intelligence services.
In July 1928 two of his associates, David and Dore Baumgart, were tried at the Old Bailey for conspiracy to defraud over share dealings in which Liversidge was also alleged to have been involved.
Cudbert Thornhill had been a military attaché in Petrograd from 1916 to 1918 and later worked in political intelligence in the Foreign Office during the Second World War.
Norman Thwaites, who had worked in intelligence in New York City during the First World War and had recruited the spy Sidney Reilly, chaired meetings for the fascist January Club and was an associate of H. W. Luttman-Johnson.
Van Lighten, a Dutchman, had tried to join MI5 and was viewed with suspicion by the intelligence services as possibly a German agent.
In early 1940 MI5 received intelligence that "three notorious Jew swindlers" were using "improper pressures brought to bear in High Places" to effect the release of internees from a camp at Seaton, Devon in return for payment of £500 (about £17,700 at 2003 prices).
However, on 15 May the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, wrote to the Home Office recommending that Liversidge be interned because "I am certain that you will agree that it is most undesirable that a man with the unsavoury and indeed dangerous associations of Perlsweig, who during recent months has had access to information of a most secret character, should be left at large either in the Service or in the Country.
It then alleged, on the word of the informant from 1937, that Liversidge had used the alias "John Stone" and had been involved in a fraud in New York City.
The Statement also claimed that Liversidge was an "associate" of Van Lighten, and alleged that he was involved, with a Leon Nussbaum and an interned German national named Richard Markus, in dubious dealings in industrial diamonds.
[6] The Statement concluded:[6] ... he is completely unscrupulous and it may be that he has been recently concerned in acts prejudicial to public safety, although we have no direct evidence of this ... we submit that in view of the valuable information which he possesses it is essential in the interests of security that his detention should be continued.
He admitted the falsehoods on his passport application and his use of the alias "John Stone," but denied any fraud or association with Van Lighten.
[13] On 9 November 1941, six days after the House of Lords issued its ruling, it was decided that there were no longer compelling reasons for Liversidge's detention.