Joe Lewis, the owner of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club in England, has been indicted on insider trading charges in the United States.
Lewis, whose net worth is estimated at over $6 billion, is said to have slipped confidential business information to others, including his romantic partners and private pilots.
Manhattan-based U.S. attorney Damian Williams announced the case in a Twitter video, saying that Lewis exploited his entrée to various corporations to reap tips that he slipped to people in his own inner circle, who deployed the knowledge to make stock trades and millions of dollars.
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“As we allege, he used insider information as a way to compensate his employees and shower gifts on his friends and lovers,” Williams said. “It’s cheating, and it’s against the law.
“Laws that apply to everyone, no matter who you are. That’s why Joe Lewis has been indicted and will face justice here in the Southern District of New York.”
Lewis reportedly faces 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.
An attorney for the 86-year-old Lewis, David M. Zornow, said that his client is innocent.
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.”
According to the indictment, Lewis’ investments in various companies gave him control of board seats, where he placed associates who let him know what they learned behind the scenes. Lewis allegedly doled out that confidential information to his chosen recipients and urged them to trade on it.
At one point, according to the indictment, he even loaned his two private pilots $500,000 apiece to buy stock in a cancer-drug company that had gotten — but not yet publicly disclosed — encouraging results from a clinical trial.
The club advanced to the Champions League final in 2019, losing to Liverpool. Their last trophy came in the 2008 English League Cup.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.