Charles Wyly, Jr. (October 13, 1933 – August 7, 2011), was an American entrepreneur and businessman, philanthropist, civic leader, and a major contributor to Republican causes and art projects in Dallas, Texas.

[1] Born during the Great Depression, Charles Wyly was a child when the collapsed economy forced the surrender of his family's cotton farm in Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish in northeastern Louisiana.

[6] In the summer of 2010, the Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission accused Wyly and his brother of using offshore havens to hide more than a half a billion dollars in profits over 13 years of insider stock trading and fraud.

Charles and Sam Wyly, according to a jury in New York City in 2013 in a civil trial, acted fraudulently by trying to hide assets which they controlled in four public companies that were sold for billions of dollars.

On Sunday, August 7, 2011, Wyly, who maintained a home in the rural town of Woody Creek[7] in Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen, Colorado, was turning onto a highway near the local airport when his Porsche was hit by a sport utility vehicle according to the Colorado State Highway Patrol.