`Investment guru' takes one too many speculative steps

It is three years since the ebullient "investment guru", Mr Tony Taylor, left the Republic. His sudden departure set off alarm bells with many investors, but it soon became clear that a select group, which Mr Taylor personally handled, were the ones with most to fear.

Mr Taylor was one of the most prominent members of Dublin's investment community for many years and had established Taylor Asset Management (TAM) in Clyde Road, Ballsbridge in the 1980s. TAM was one of the biggest private managers of client funds outside the major financial institutions, and had substantial business in the Republic and Britain. The firm also had an exclusive agreement to sell products for one of the world's leading fund managers, Fidelity, since 1989, which helped attract many high net worth individuals.

A number of key staff had left to set up a rival firm in the months before Mr Taylor's departure and had taken a substantial slice of TAM's business with them, but its operations were still quite large.

It was the severing of the agreement with Fidelity which raised initial concerns about the way the firm was being run. At the time, Fidelity, a massive fund manager, said the agreement had ended because it had proved to be inflexible, given its desire to establish other distribution channels here. Around the same time, a small number of investors lodged complaints against Mr Taylor with the Irish Brokers' Association and the Central Bank, having grown increasingly frustrated at not being able to get information about their funds. The essence of this complaint was that a client's investment portfolio had been sold and the proceeds of the sale were diverted without their permission. The IBA had summoned Mr Taylor to answer these complaints before a specially-convened council, but he never appeared. Mr Taylor left the office one Friday in mid-August 1996, without taking any documents or files, and the staff believed he had gone away on business. He left his dog with staff while he was away. A few days later, he sent a fax to the office saying his absence might be longer than first expected.

Mr Taylor and his second wife, Shirley, who worked as a receptionist at the firm, appeared to have suddenly left their Ballsbridge home. It was also revealed that the investment broker had sold his top-of-the-range Mercedes before leaving.

The firm's main clients would have been relatively wealthy private individuals, many of whom owned small and medium-sized businesses, looking for an opportunity to earn an attractive return on their funds.

A prominent figure in the investment community over the past 20 years, those who knew him say he viewed himself as an "investment guru" who believed he could deliver the highest returns for his clients. The firm frequently took out full-page advertisements in the Sunday newspapers to show how its clients were getting better returns on their investments than those achieved by the biggest fund managers in the Republic.

Educated at Rockwell College, Co Tipperary, he started his career as a trainee actuary with NM Life, which was later taken over by Standard Life. In 1972, he moved to work with Mr James Bowen, but left to start his own business in the mid-80s. He was disliked by the large investment institutions, which saw him as trying to cut in on their funds' management patch.

He was a key member of the insurance industry and was founding president of the brokers' industry body, the IBA. He gained further status as a member of the Government-appointed body to advise on the introduction of the EU investment intermediaries legislation under which the industry is now regulated.

According to industry sources, Mr Taylor was a domineering character who personally controlled the firm's activities. He dealt with the auditors and had sole access to its bank accounts. He also dealt personally with all his clients. He would regularly visit them and had always been prompt in answering queries until shortly before he left the firm.

It was only when officials from the Department of Enterprise and Employment launched an investigation into the group that it became clear that a coterie of up to 12 client accounts were also being managed personally by Mr Taylor from his home, unknown to staff at the firm. Initial estimates of the amount of monies that were missing were put at anything between £2 million and £4 million but details lodged with the High Court stated that clients' funds amounting to £1,550,610 were unaccounted for, and the company was insolvent to the amount of £155,618. At the time, there was speculation that some investors may have been reluctant to inform the authorities about funds placed with Mr Taylor as the monies may not have been declared to the Revenue Commissioners.

The court was told that Mr Taylor's firm did not appear to be a "well-run" company. Investors who lost up to £1.7 million identified themselves to the liquidator. It also heard that Mr Taylor was abroad for "an unspecified period" and could not be contacted.

In his report, the liquidator told the court that clients' files had been deleted at Mr Taylor's request, involving monies of more than £800,000, and that a cheque for £93,000, which was due to a client, was diverted to another company. An account held by the Society of St Vincent de Paul, with £185,000, was included in the files that were deleted. The money had been earmarked for an indoor play centre in a summer holiday home, which the society uses for less well-off children from the greater Dublin region.

A further £700,000 of clients' money had not been entered on the books, and money had been withdrawn from company accounts. Some of the investors, whose funds could not be traced, had placed as much as £200,000 with the firm.