Joe Lewis has been indicted for allegedly orchestrating "brazen" insider trading scheme; US Attorney: "We allege he used insider information to compensate his employees or to shower gifts on his friends and lovers"; Lewis to defend charges "vigorously"
Thursday 27 July 2023 10:01, UK
Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns Tottenham Hotspur, has pleaded not guilty in New York after being indicted for orchestrating a "brazen" insider trading scheme.
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 entered his not guilty plea on Wednesday before magistrate judge Valerie Figueredo in Manhattan.
He ceased to be a "person with significant control" of Tottenham last year after the club said there had been a "reorganisation of the Lewis Family Trusts".
However, this took place after his alleged offences were committed.
The indictment also accuses him of "false disclosure of his ownership" and using shell companies and trusts purportedly for the benefit of family members to give him access to company information.
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."
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.
"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.
"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."
Joe Lewis owns the Tavistock Group, with more than 200 assets across 13 countries, 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.
