Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis has been indicted in New York over alleged “brazen” insider trading, which the billionaire defends “vigorously”.
U.S Attorney Damian Williams broke the news via his X (formerly Twitter) account, sharing a video in which he said “Today I’m announcing that 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 access to corporate board rooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his pilot and his friends.”
“These folks then traded on that inside information and made millions of dollars on the stock market. Thanks to Lewis those bets were a sure thing.”
Statement of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams on U.S. v. Joseph Lewis pic.twitter.com/9rGTTYVx6h
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) July 25, 2023
Williams finishes by pointing out that Lewis was already a wealthy man, highlighting that his alleged continued cheating was “classic corporate corruption” and is against the law.
What is Lewis accused of?
The indictment against Joe Lewis states that he and his associates made millions of dollars using stolen information.
The Tottenham owner has been charged with 16 counts of securities fraud, alongside 3 counts of conspiracy.
The information in question is alleged to have been shared between 2019 and 2021, and involves companies including Solid Biosciences, Australian Agricultural Co, and Mirati Therapeutics.
In 2019, it is alleged that Lewis’ romantic partner purchased $700,000 of shares in Solid Biosciences, after he told her the results of a clinical trial.
In a similar circumstance that same year, Lewis then advised 2 of his pilots to sell their shares in Australian Agricultural Co that same year, because of flooding in Queensland.
In what may be a damning email to his stockbroker, one of these pilots wrote “Just wish the Boss would have given us a little earlier heads up.”
The indictment goes on to allege that Joe Lewis also lent 2 of his pilots $1 million to purchase Mirati Therapeutics shares. Mirati’s share price went up by over 16% soon after.
One of the pilots was found to have texted a friend on the matter, saying “Boss lent Marty and I $500,000 for this.”
David Zornow, Lewis’ lawyer said that the American government had “mad an egregious error in judgement charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity on prodigious accomplishment”
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Zornow added that Lewis had come to the States willingly to answer the “ill-conceived” charges, which he said he would defend “vigorously” in court.
A spokesperson for Tottenham Hotspur said “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.”
