Jabez Balfour

Jabez Spencer Balfour (4 September 1843 – 23 February 1916) was an English businessman, British Liberal Party politician and fraudster.

[1] Balfour was also interested in local politics in his home town of Croydon, Surrey where he regularly topped the poll for the school board.

Together with City financiers Leopold Salomons and Sir John Pender, Balfour founded the investment underwriting firm the Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited in December 1887.

[3][4] In 1892, he was at the centre of a scandal over the failure of a series of companies which he set up and controlled, starting with the London and General Bank and culminating in the Liberator Building Society, leaving thousands of investors penniless.

[6] The captain of the ship, Thomas Hesketh, later received a letter from Balfour thanking him for the kindness and hospitality shown during the trip back to England.