Billionaire businessman Joe Lewis has been indicted in the US for allegedly “orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme,” it was announced on Tuesday.
Mr Lewis bought a controlling stake in Tottenham Hotspur football club in 2001 but he ceased to be “a person with significant control” of Spurs last year, following what was described as a “reorganisation of the Lewis Family Trusts”, which hold the shares in the team.
US Attorney Damian Williams said in a post on Twitter that the Southern District of New York has accused the 86-year-old billionaire of “classic corporate corruption”.
Mr Williams said in a video: “Today I am 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 his access to corporate boardrooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots, and his friends.”
Statement of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams on U.S. v. Joseph Lewis pic.twitter.com/9rGTTYVx6h
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) July 25, 2023
He added: “Those folks 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.
“Now, none of this was necessary. Joe Lewis is a wealthy man, but as we allege he used inside information as a way to compensate his employees or to shower gifts on his friends and lovers. That’s classic corporate corruption.
“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.”
Mr Lewis’s lawyer David Zornow said the government has made an “egregious error in judgment”.
But who is Joe Lewis and what is his association with Spurs?
How did Joe Lewis make his money?
Born in Bow in 1937, Mr Lewis left school at 15 to help run his father’s West End catering business, Tavistock Banqueting, and took over the running of it.
Under his leadership, the model changed to sell luxury goods to US tourists. Mr Lewis sold it in 1979 — which made him his initial wealth.
He moved to currency trading in the 1980s and 1990s, which culminated in him betting on the sterling crashing out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on the Black Wednesday financial crash. It was a bad day for many but it made Mr Lewis a fortune.
Mr Lewis is now the main investor in the Tavistock Group of companies and he has interests in property as well as land ownership. He also has a huge art collection and is the largest shareholder in the British pub group Mitchells & Butlers.
What other financial interests does Joe Lewis have?
The Joe Lewis empire does not end there.
He seeded the Lake Nona Medical City, a 650-acre health and life sciences park in Orlando, along with the Tavistock Group.
More contentiously, he has bought land in Argentina, which has led to an ongoing battle with locals over access to the Escondido lake.
Mr Lewis is also a stakeholder within US investment bank Bear Stearns, and a major shareholder in the pub chain Mitchells & Butlers.
Where does Joe Lewis live?
Mr Lewis lives in the Bahamas.
He has two children and is married to Jane, having previously been married to Esther Browne.
Who owns Tottenham Hotspur?
It says something about the size of the Tavistock Group that ownership of Tottenham is listed as one entity under the ‘sports’ part of their portfolio.
Spurs are owned by investment company ENIC, which is a Tavistock subsidiary. The group bought the club from Lord Alan Sugar in 2000.
Daniel Levy, Mr Lewis’s partner at ENIC, is executive chairman of the club and handles most of the day-to-day running on the financial side. The allegations are against Mr Lewis only. There are no allegations of wrongdoing against anyone else and Mr Lewis is not involved with the day to day runnings at Spurs.
A Tottenham spokesperson said: “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.”
What is Joe Lewis’s net worth?
According to the Sunday Times Rich List in 2023, Mr Lewis has a net worth of £5.096 billion — an increase of £811 million from 2022.
