Jack Lyons (financier)

Isidore Jack Lyons (born 1916) is a retired financier retail and property magnate and philanthropist.

Sir Jack spent a large proportion of his life in the United Kingdom, having been born in 1916 in Leeds, Yorkshire, where his late father, Samuel Henry Lyons had established a men's clothing business, with a factory and a few dozen retail shops. Sir Jack started at the bottom of the business, in the factory and the shops until gaining sufficient experience and ability to be appointed a director in 1937, in charge of sales and marketing and later becoming chief executive and chairman. He contributed considerably to the growth of the original business with the expansion of branches and the development of a very lucrative export division during the early post War period which enabled the business to grow rapidly into a large conglomerate of companies called UDS Group which included; Richard Shops, Allders of Croydon, John Collier, Timpsons, Alexandre Stores, John Blundell Credit Company, John Myers catalogue mail order business, Whiteleys and other department stores and the worldwide Duty Free stores.

Guinness Affair

He was in 1986, when asked to purchase shares in Distillers and advise Guinness on an ambitious takeover proposal, Sir Isidore Jack Lyons, a millionaire financier renowned for his philanthropy, whose acquaintances included former prime ministers Sir Edward Heath and Lady Thatcher. Sir Jack is said to have used his personal friendship with Lady Thatcher to try to ensure the brewing group's offer for Distillers got through the Office of Fair Trading. Mrs Thatcher replied to his letter saying the matter would be passed to the then minister responsible Paul Channon. The bid was subsequently unblocked.

He was charged in 1987 in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s, along with Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, and Anthony Parnes, and the four men became known as "the Guinness Four". He was convicted but not sent to prison because he was suffering from ill-health. However, he lost his knighthood and was fined pounds £3,000,000 plus pounds £1,000,000 prosecution costs. In 1995, on appeal one count of conspiracy was quashed and his fine was cut to pounds £2,500,000. Lawyers for the Guinness Four said their clients had lost their right to silence because they were compelled to give evidence to Department of Trade and Industry inspectors. Appeals by the four in 1991 and 1995 ended in partial success. But their convictions were upheld.

Their convictions for illegally rigging the stock market before Guinness's pounds 2.6bn takeover of Distillers in 1986 sent shock waves through the City and marked a watershed in attitudes. Still a high point for the Serious Fraud Office, which brought the prosecution, the case laid bare the culture among financiers for aggressive dealing and spectacular money-making. The trial was synonymous with Thatcherism - not least because , Mr Lyons, was close to the former prime minister.

Despite ill health, he is continuing to appeal his conviction in the European Court of Human Rights. He lives in Geneva, Switzerland.