Barry Townsley

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Barry Stephen Townsley CBE (born 14 October 1946) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He sold his stockbroking business, Townsley & Co., to the Dutch private bank Insinger de Beaufort. In June 2005 he set up a financial services venture, Dawnay Day Townsley.^[1]

He is married to Laura Wolfson, daughter of Leonard Wolfson, Baron Wolfson of the GUS retail company. He was a governor of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and supporter of The Israel Center for Social & Economic Progress.

[edit] "Cash for peerages"

He was a member and supporter of the Labour Party, recorded as donating "more than £5,000" before 2001 and £6,000 since 2001. He also donated £10,000 to the London Mayoral campaign of Frank Dobson.^[2]

Described as "colourful" by The Sunday Times,^[3] Townsley was involved in the so-called "cash for peerages" scandal in March 2006, in which it was revealed that he had lent £1m to the Labour Party^[4] at the solicitation of Lord Levy, and contributed £1.5m to a City Academy in Hillingdon. He was nominated for a peerage shortly after making the loan, but in February 2006 he withdrew from the nomination on the grounds of press intrusion into his private life.^[5]

[edit] Langbar International

He was also connected with Crown Corporation Limited^{[6] [7]} (now Langbar International), the largest share fraud on a listed company of the London Stock Exchange and Insinger Townsley (the company acquired from Mr Townsley in its entirety in 1999 and he resigned in May 2004. The company is now known as Insinger de Beaufort) was Crown's broker at the Initial Public Offer. Townsley was due to become the vice chairman of Crown Oil^[8], a subsidiary of Crown/Langbar, he resigned from the company in January 2005. He was due to give evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice in the case of Langbar International Limited v Mariusz Rybak and others that started in the High Court on 12 November 2007.^[9][10]

[edit] References