February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Runaway investment broker Tony Taylor, who was arrested last August in the south of England, has given up his fight against extradition and flown back to Ireland to face fraud charges.
Taylor, 52, fled in 1996 when his business collapsed. His Ballsbridge-based Taylor Asset Management company had been one of the country’s biggest individual investment brokers.
Just how much cash is missing is still unclear. After his disappearance, it was claimed that he kept a separate set of books for special customers at his home.
He is facing charges involving more than £600,000 worth of clients’ money.
His clients included the Vincent de Paul charity, which lost £185,000 earmarked for its Sunshine Homes project for poor children in Balbriggan.
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Taylor set up his business in the 1980s and became one of the country’s most prominent financiers. He is a former chairman of the Irish Brokers’ Association and advised the government on investment protection legislation.
He was arrested last year in Eastbourne, where he had been living for some time in a rented house with his wife, Shirley.