Tottenham proprietor Joe Lewis has been arrested and can seem in court docket in the USA on Wednesday charged with giving insider buying and selling tricks to pals, lovers and even his private pilots.
The US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York has charged the 86-year-old with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.
Prosecutors say Lewis is alleged to have used his entry to confidential info to supply inventory tricks to people near him, with the indictment referring to at least one girlfriend having made 849,000 US {dollars} (£657,000) on a type of tip-offs.
Lewis was arrested on Wednesday morning, prosecutors mentioned, and shall be offered later.
Lewis’ authorized counsel David Zornow, from the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom agency, mentioned: “The federal 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 reply these ill-conceived costs, and we are going to defend him vigorously in court docket.”
Every of the primary 13 counts of securities fraud carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail, Manhattan prosecutors mentioned in a press release issued on Wednesday.
The US Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, had introduced on Tuesday that Lewis had been indicted over a “brazen insider buying and selling scheme”.
Prosecutors mentioned Lewis, by advantage of his investments in sure firms, acquired materials and personal details about these firms.
British investor and billionaire businessman Joseph Lewis charged with insider buying and selling and monetary fraudhttps://t.co/Ceo6fAq5De
— US Legal professional SDNY (@SDNYnews) July 26, 2023
A launch from prosecutors on Wednesday alleged Lewis had “misused and misappropriated this confidential info to supply inventory tricks to varied people in his life, together with his staff, romantic companions, and pals, as a manner to supply them with compensation and presents”.
It added: “These people, in flip, traded on the information offered by Lewis for huge private acquire.”
Lewis purchased a controlling stake in Spurs in 2001 for £22million.
He formally ceded management of the membership final 12 months, with Bahamian lawyer Bryan A Glinton changing him as a director in keeping with Firms Home.
His stake within the membership – which he held by means of the ENIC Group alongside Daniel Levy – was formally handed to a household belief final 12 months.
Members of the family of Lewis stay beneficiaries of the belief.
ICYMI British investor and billionaire businessman Joseph Lewis charged with insider buying and selling and monetary fraudhttps://t.co/Ceo6fAq5De https://t.co/GcKlhfPYBi
— US Legal professional SDNY (@SDNYnews) July 26, 2023
PA understands the Premier League doesn’t contemplate Lewis as an individual with management at Tottenham, and is subsequently not topic to its house owners’ and administrators’ check.
A Tottenham spokesperson mentioned: “It is a authorized matter unconnected with the membership and as such we’ve no remark.”
US prosecutors mentioned Lewis can be alleged to have falsely disclosed the extent of his possession shares in a pharmaceutical firm, Mirati, “by means of an elaborate array of shell firms and different entities, together with an offshore belief purportedly for the advantage of his granddaughter”.
On account of this alleged false disclosure, prosecutors mentioned he was in a position to train warrants in Mirati that he would in any other case not have been in a position to train, “at huge monetary acquire”.
Additionally charged have been Patrick O’Connor and Bryan Waugh, two pilots employed by Lewis to fly his personal plane. In a single occasion, it’s alleged Lewis loaned every of them 500,000 US {dollars} (greater than £387,000) to purchase shares in an organization earlier than it publicly introduced beneficial details about some medical outcomes.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) performing assistant director in cost Christie M Curtis mentioned: “As alleged, Mr Lewis handled materials, personal info at his disposal as if it was one thing he may give his pals and associates for his or her profit.
“Any such behaviour – blatant disregard for the legislation – just isn’t solely unlawful however undermines the integrity of our monetary markets.
“The FBI is decided to make sure that anybody keen to perpetrate insider buying and selling schemes is held accountable in the USA legal justice system.”
