Joe Lewis, the British billionaire and long-time majority stakeholder in Tottenham Hotspur, pleaded not guilty in New York on Wednesday to charges of insider trading.
The previous day, federal officials said the investor “abused his access to corporate boardrooms” and carried out a series of “brazen” instances of financial misconduct, sharing insider information with friends, employees, and former romantic partners. He’s charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, Reuters reports.
“That’s classic corporate corruption,” US attorney Damian Williams said in a video statement on Tuesday. “It’s cheating, and it’s against the law.”
Attorneys for the billionaire said he plans to fight the charges.
“The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” David M Zornow said in an email statement to The Independent on Tuesday. “Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.”
In a hearing on Wednesday before US magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo in Manhattan following Mr Lewis’s early-morning arrest by the FBI, new details about the case against the businessman came to light.
As part of a $300m bond, Mr Lewis was ordered to surrender his mega-yacht, the Aviva, as well as his private aircraft. He will now be barred from international travel as the case proceeds.
Officials also accused two of his pilots, Patrick O’Connor of New York and Bryan Waugh of Virginia, of profiting off illegal tips from Mr Lewis. Both men have pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers declined requests to comment from Reuters.
Prosecutors allege Mr Lewis lent the men $500,000 each in 2019, encouraging them to buy stock in an oncology company in which the billionaire had invested. Mr O’Connor allegedly texted a friend “the Boss has inside info”, a seeming reference to a tip that the billionaire allegedly passed on that the company was about to announce promising clinical results.
After the company announced the news, the shares the pilots allegedly bought leapt by 16.7 per cent, and prosecutors allege one of the men labeled a payment to Mr Lewis “loan payback” and listed the company’s stock symbol.
In an accompanying civil case, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Mr Lewis, the pilots, and the billionaire’s former girlfriend Carolyn Carter of insider trading.
Officials allege that in 2019, Mr Lewis told Ms Carter about a biotech company that was about to raise capital and potentially increase its share price, even though he was bound by a confidentiality agreement.
She then allegedly bought $701,000 in the company, earning a $172,000 on her investment. The Independent has contacted Ms Carter for comment.
“When insiders like Lewis take advantage of their access to such information, it erodes public trust and confidence in the fair and efficient operation of our markets,” SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “That’s why we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to hold accountable those who abuse their positions for personal benefit and the unlawful enrichment of others.”
Tottenham Hotspur told The Independent, “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.”
Mr Lewis ceased to be a "person with significant control" of the Premier League club last year, following a "reorganisation of the Lewis Family Trusts,” the club said, according to Sky News.
He bought a controlling stake in the Premier League club from Lord Alan Sugar in 2001 for £22m.
Mr Lewis owns the Tavistock Group, which owns more than 200 assets across 13 countries, including Tottenham Hotspur and UK pub operator Mitchells & Butlers, according to Sky News.
The 86-year-old is worth an estimated $6.1bn and lives in the Bahamas, according to Forbes.
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