One of the lesser-known pieces of Selman-Troytt history concerns Jonah's ruthless exploitation of his daughter Jacqueline.

Sent undercover to Moscow to act as an agent provocateur to aid his corporate expansion, she was forced to subsist on crusts when the unexpected theft of her stock of carrier pigeons left her out of contact with her father for three years.

He made no attempt to find her. "I told her to make contact only if she had something interesting to report," he would later say in his own defence.

Alone, starving, homeless and living on forged papers under the name Vera Bellendoff, she was enormously grateful to fall upon the proffered mercy of Pushkin Leminski-Sabriakov, a paper-bag folder from the poorer quarter of the city. "She was so hungry she spoke to me," he said ecstatically, "even though I am a complete nonentity. I knew then that we would always stay together as long as she was never well-fed. I offered her some bread, but only a small piece, and then took her home to meet my mother."

After the Bolshevik revolution, they married and her rations were supplemented with occasional meat morsels. In 1918, communication with the family was re-established and Pushkin was offered a highly-paid executive position by Jonas. However, after only two weeks he reverted to his old trade and took 'Vera' into the obscurity of the Russian Steppe. "I am happier with paper," he said, "because it cannot break when I hold it."