Tottenham Hotspur owner charged over alleged insider trading
British billionaire and owner of Tottenham Hotspur Joe Lewis has been charged with “orchestrating a brazen insider trader scheme”, US attorney Damian Williams has said.
Williams used a video announcement to accuse Lewis of using inside information to “shower gifts on his friends and lovers”.
Joe Lewis “has been indicted and will face justice” in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Williams said.
The 86-year-old has voluntarily gone to the US to defend himself against the “ill-conceived charges.” A lawyer for the billionaire said charging Lewis was an “egregious error in judgement”.
A Tottenham Hotspur spokesperson said in a statement: “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.”
So far the allegations against Joe Lewis have been laid out in a video statement posted to Twitter. A formal written statement, known as an indictment, is yet to be released.
“We allege that, for years, Joe Lewis abused his access to corporate board rooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots, and his friends,” Williams said in the video.
Williams is the chief federal law enforcement officer for the SDNY. He alleged that Joe Lewis’s acquaintances used that information to make millions of dollars in the stock market.
Mr Williams, the chief federal law enforcement officer for the SDNY, alleged that Mr Lewis’s acquaintances used that information to make millions of dollars in the stock market.
“Thanks to [Mr] Lewis, those bets were a sure thing,” he claimed.
Joe Lewis is one of Britain’s richest men with an estimated worth of more than £5bn.
