The British billionaire owner of Tottenham Hotspur, Joe Lewis, is expected to appear in a New York court on Wednesday after being indicted over alleged insider trading.
Lewis, who was accused of orchestrating a “brazen” insider trading scheme by the US attorney in Manhattan late on Tuesday night, has surrendered to US authorities.
In a video posted on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Damian Williams said: “Today I’m announcing that my office, the southern district of New York has indicted Joe Lewis, the British billionaire, for orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme.
“We allege that for years Joe Lewis abused access to corporate board rooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his pilots and his friends.
“Those folks then traded on that inside information and made millions of dollars on the stock market. Thanks to Lewis those bets were a sure thing.
“None of this was necessary. Joe Lewis is a wealthy man, but as we allege he used insider information to compensate his employees, or to shower gifts on his friends and lovers.
“That’s classic corporate corruption. It’s cheating and it’s against the law.”
Lewis’ lawyer, David Zornow, said the government had “made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment”.
He added that Mr Lewis had come to the US voluntarily to answer the “ill-conceived” charges which would be “defended vigorously in court”.
A Tottenham club spokesperson said: “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.”
Lewis’ stake in the club – which he held through the ENIC Group alongside Daniel Levy – was formally handed to a family trust last year. Family members of Lewis remain beneficiaries of the trust.
What does the indictment say?
The indictment says Lewis and his associates were able to make millions of dollars using stolen information. Lewis has been charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.
Lewis is accused of sharing information between 2019 and 2021 about companies including Australian Agricultural Co., Mirati Therapeutics and Solid Biosciences.
The indictment says Lewis used information he was given as a board member to tip off friends and associates about when to buy and sell shares.
Lewis (left) with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy
In 2019 indictment says Lewis’s girlfriend bought $700,000 of shares in Solid Biosciences after he told her about the results of a clinical trial.
In the same year Lewis is accused of advising two of his pilots to sell their shares in Australian Agricultural Co. because of flooding in Queensland. In an email to a stockbroker, one of the pilots is said to have written: “Just wish the Boss would have given us a little earlier heads up”.
Indictment says in October 2019 Lewis lent two of his pilots $1m to buy Mirati shares. The share price went up 16.7 per cent soon after when it announced the results of a clinical trial. The indictment says one of the pilots texted a friend: “Boss lent Marty and I $500,000 for this”.
Between 2013 and 2018 Lewis is accused of conspiring to defraud Mirati, US Securities and Exchange Commission and investors by hiding his stake in Mirati using shell companies and other means.
‘Lewis not involved in day-to-day running of Spurs’
Sky Sports News’ chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:
“Spurs fans will be feeling a little concerned this morning after they woke up and saw the headlines, but as far as Tottenham are concerned this is a personal matter for Joe Lewis.
“Ultimately, he is the owner of Tottenham but he is not involved in the day-to-day running of the club. The man who is in charge of running the club is the chairman Daniel Levy.
“Joe Lewis has only ever very rarely come and watched games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol reports that Tottenham owner Joe Lewis has been indicted for allegedly orchestrating an insider trading scheme. He denies any wrongdoing.
“Of course, he is someone who has owned the club since he bought a controlling stake from Alan Sugar back in 2001 for around £22m and the charges he is facing in the US are very serious.
“They are 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, but his lawyer David Zornow has come out and said these charges are ill conceived and he has said they will be vigorously defended in court.
“If you are found guilty of these kinds of charges usually you would face a prison sentence of up to 25 years, but of course, you are innocent until you are proven guilty, and Lewis and his lawyers maintain he is absolutely innocent and he has done nothing wrong.
“I think this is going to take a while to play out because obviously there is going to be a court case. This is not going to be sorted out any time soon but as far as Spurs and the running of the club is concerned, this is not going to affect the club. This is a personal matter for Joe Lewis.”
Who is Joe Lewis?
Lewis owns the Tavistock Group, with more than 200 assets across 13 countries, through which he owns Tottenham Hotspur and the UK pub operator Mitchells & Butlers. Forbes puts his wealth at £4.65bn.
He bought a controlling stake in the Premier League club from Alan Sugar for £22m in 2001.
He now lives in the Bahamas, a far cry from his humble beginnings in London’s East End.
Joe Lewis was born above a pub in Roman Road, Bow. He left school at 15 to help run his father’s West End catering business, Tavistock Banqueting. he sold the business in 1979, forming the basis of his initial fortune, before moving into currency trading.
In 1992, he allegedly teamed up with American billionaire George Soros to bet on the pound crashing out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (EERM).
Black Wednesday, as it became known, sank sterling and forced the British government to withdraw the pound from the EERM.
