Joe Lewis, Tottenham Hotspur majority owner has been charged with brazen insider trading by the US Federal prosecutors.
On Tuesday, 25th of July, 2023, in a sensational development, federal prosecutors alleged that the billionaire business mogul passed on inside information as a way to pay back his workers or shower gift on his friends and lovers.
US Attorney Damian Williams said in a theatrical statement sent by a video: “My office, the Southern District of New York has indicted Joe Lewis, the British Billionaire, for orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme“.
Mr. Williams claimed that the 86-year-old British business tycoon has rendered inside communication to people familiar to him for years in a brazen method worth millions of dollars.
He added: “We allege that for years Joe Lewis abused his access to the corporate boardroom and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his assistant, his private pilots, and his friends”.
Joe Lewis has been charged with 16 counts of securities fraud, each of which keeps up an extreme sentence of 20 years in jail.
Three counts of securities crime, each of which brings a maximum punishment of 25 years in jail, and three counts of conspiracy, each of which holds up an utmost sentence of five years in jail.
According to football insiders, the 86-year-old British Billionaire has encountered 16 counts of securities cheating and three counts of corruption for alleged scandals carried out between 2013 and 2021.
According to the prosecution, some of the people who received Lewis’s recommendations had allegedly lent money, and others received inside knowledge about companies including Mirati Therapeutics and Solid Biosciences.
However, according to Lewis’ lawyer David Zornow who said, the government had made an obvious error in charging his client, whom he characterized as a man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment.
Zornow said: “Mr. Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges and we will defend him vigorously in court”.
Forbes estimates Lewis’ net worth at 6.1 billion dollars, his holdings span numerous industries, including agriculture, oil, real estate, and even sports.
The Tavistock Group, led by Lewis, reportedly holds interests in over 200 businesses across 15 nations. His investment firm ENIC took full control of Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League in 2001.
Lewis, who lives in the Bahamas, has created a luxury resort on the island’s oceanfront with several famous people, including Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, and Justin Timberlake, which first opened its doors in 2010.
Mr. Lewis is said to be among the wealthiest people in Britain. In 2001, he paid £22 million to acquire the London Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur led by Chairman Daniel Levy from Sir Alan Sugar.
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