Barry Townsley

Barry Stephen Townsley CBE (born October 14, 1946) is a British stockbroker and charity-worker. He is chairman of City stockbrokers Insinger Townsley and married to Laura Wolfson, daughter of Lord Wolfson of Marylebone and granddaughter of GUS mail order magnate Isaac Wolfson.

"Cash for peerages"

Described as "colourful" by The Times,[1] Townsley was involved in the "cash for peerages" scandal of March 2006, in which it was revealed he had lent £1m to the Labour Party[2] at the solicitation of Lord Levy and contributed £1.5m to a City Academy. 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.

Previous controversies

Townsley is also subject to an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the disappearance of £365m in an alleged fraud organized by Abraham Arad, a former adviser to the Israeli government who claimed to be investing money from 2,000 Israeli pensioners living principally in South America. [3] In the 1980s, Townsley had been found guilty of "gross misconduct" and banned from trading for six months for his part in the "Galloping Major" share-dealing fraud.[4]