Tottenham Hotspur billionaire owner Joe Lewis pleads GUILTY to insider trading

Tottenham Hotspur’s majority shareholder Joe Lewis has pleaded guilty to, "conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud as part of a deal with prosecutors," as reported by BBC News.

According to BNN Bloomberg, Lewis told the Judge, "I knew at the time what I was doing was wrong and I’m so embarrassed," having given, "information about certain publicly traded companies," to some of his close associates.

Lewis faced upwards of 19 charges against him, with the majority being securities fraud as well as three conspiracy charges.

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Lewis surrendered himself to the US courts in July, 2023, according to BBC World Service

Lewis posted his $300,000,000 bail after his court appearance, it was reported by the news service.

As part of Lewis' bail conditions, he is unable to use his 223ft super yacht or travel overseas on his private plane. He has also had to surrender his passport, according to reporting at the time from CNN.

Lewis, who is the chairman of the Tavistock Group, an investment firm with over 200 companies across the world, is valued at well over $6 billion US (£4.71bn)

Pictured is Lewis' 322ft-long yacht

In a statement released by Damian Williams, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, Lewis “abused his access to corporate boardrooms”, from Justice.gov

Williams did not mince his words in his indictment, claiming Lewis took part in a “brazen insider trading scheme”.

As part of Williams’ statement, he claims Lewis “repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots and his friends”

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It seems from the allegations Lewis was keen to ensure it was those in his close circle who benefitted from his insider knowledge. Given his extreme wealth, it feels like he could easily have gifted them whatever they wanted anyway!

Once provided with the insider information, Lewis’ connections “then traded on that inside information and made millions of dollars in the stock market, because thanks to Lewis those bets were a sure thing”. Willaims' statement continued.

From the indictment, it seems some members of Lewis’ entourage have been rather brazen with their communication, with one of his pilots texting another saying, “Boss lent Marty and I $500,000 each for this,” per a Yahoo Finance report.

From the same text chain, the same pilot also spells out the exact crime his boss was committing, saying he believed, “the Boss has inside info… otherwise why would he make us invest”

The $500,000 loan given to each of Lewis’ pilots was quickly paid off as the stock they were told to invest in rose a staggering 16.7%. This sort of trading is almost only ever a result of insider knowledge.

Whilst Joe Lewis is the majority owner of Tottenham, this matter is entirely separate from any of Tottenham’s operations, something the club was quick to point out in a statement, reading, “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.”

Lewis’ lawyer has made his own statement claiming, “made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment”.

Lewis has been a part owner of Tottenham since the 1990s, but he took over a controlling stake in the club back in 2001. Paying fellow Englishman Alan Sugar just £22 million.