Joe Lewis bought a controlling stake in Premier League club Tottenham from Alan Sugar for £22m in 2001.
Now, on Wednesday, it has been confirmed that Lewis has been indicted for orchestrating a ‘brazen’ insider trading scheme, the US attorney in Manhattan said.
In a video posted on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Damian Williams 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 pilots and his friends.
“Those 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. None of this was necessary. Joe Lewis is a wealthy man, but as we allege he used insider information 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.”
Now, journalist Tariq Panja has reported that should Lewis be convicted of the insider trading charges he has been accused of on Wednesday, he would face a similar situation with Tottenham to the one Roman Abramovich faced with Chelsea, as Premier League rules say convictions are a disqualification.
When Roman Abramovich was sanctioned the PL said he had to sell club because of its rules. Joe Lewis, should he be convicted of the insider trading charges he’s been accused of today, would face similar situation with Spurs. PL rules say convictions are a disqualification.
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) July 26, 2023
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