Tottenham owner Joe Lewis is indicted in US for ‘brazen’ insider trading: British billionaire is charged with 19 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy and could face 25 years in prison

Tottenham Hotspur majority owner Joe Lewis has been charged in the US with ‘brazen’ insider trading.

In a sensational development late on Tuesday night, federal prosecutors alleged that the 86-year-old passed on inside information ‘as a way to compensate his employees or shower gifts on his friends and lovers’.

Tottenham have been approached for comment.

In a dramatic statement delivered by video, US Attorney Damian Williams said: ‘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 his access to corporate boardrooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots and his friends.  

Tottenham owner Joe Lewis has been charged with insider trading by American authorities

Lewis owns Premier League side Tottenham, the club where Daniel Levy (left) is chairman

‘Those folks then traded on that inside information and made millions of dollars on the stock market because – thanks to Lewis – those bets were a sure thing.’

Williams added: ‘Now, none of this was necessary. Joe Lewis is a wealthy man. But as we allege he used inside information as a way to compensate his employees or shower gifts on his friends and lovers. It is classic corporate corruption. 

‘It’s cheating and it’s against the law. That’s why Joe Lewis has been indicted and will face justice here in the Southern District of New York.’

In a statement released on Wednesday morning, Tottenham said: ‘This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.’

Bahamas-based Lewis, founder of investment firm The Tavistock Group, faces more than a dozen charges, including securities fraud.

He is also alleged to have loaned money to the people he is accused of tipping off. 

Lewis is charged with 13 counts of securities fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; three counts of securities fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison; and three counts of conspiracy, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. 

Lewis’ lawyers – Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom – responded by insisting they would defend him ‘vigorously’ against the ‘ill-conceived’ charges.

David M. Zornow said: ‘The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment. 

‘Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.’

The indictment consists of 29 pages. It alleges a pattern of behaviour in which Lewis used his status as investor in a number of companies to give him control of board seats.

He then placed associates there who, it is claimed, gave him inside information. Prosecutors say Lewis then illegally dished out that content between 2019 and 2021 to a chosen few – and told them to make money from it.

Amid a swathe of staggering detail, the indictment claims Lewis loaned two private pilots $500,000 each to purchase stock in a pharmaceuticals company which he knew had received – but not made public – positive results from a clinical trial. 

‘Boss is helping us out and told us to get ASAP,’ the pilot texted a friend who he told to get involved. He would go on, the indictment states, to tell the friend about the loan and state that ‘ the Boss has inside info’ and ‘knows the outcome’. 

Lewis is alleged to have passed on information illegally between 2019-21

He added: ‘Otherwise why would he make us invest.’ Lewis is also alleged to have given the tip to a variety of others, including a friend with whom he had a romance, a poker associate, his girlfriend and a personal assistant. After results were announced, the company’s stock shot up close to 17 per cent in 24 hours – and those Lewis had informed are all alleged to have sold at a profit. The pilots would later repay the loans when asked to do so by Lewis, it is alleged.

Among the other allegations is a third tip from Lewis on another pharmaceutical firm, which he was in talks to buy. The claim is that Lewis told his pilots and two personal assistants, who were working on his 322-foot mega-yacht, to get in. 

A subsequent merger plan was made public and the share price rose. Lewis is also alleged to have learned through a board member he had placed that an Australian agricultural firm was set for losses following a monsoon.

He then told the pilots to sell but they were unable to do so before the information became public knowledge. ‘Just wish the Boss would have given us a little earlier heads up,’ one of the pilots complained to their broker, according to an email.