The owner of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, Joe Lewis, has turned himself in to federal authorities in New York. Lewis will appear in court later on Wednesday to respond to allegations of insider trading as per a representative of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office.
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Lewis, according to the prosecution, took advantage of his access to business boardrooms by providing friends, personal assistants, private pilots, and love partners with insider information about the firms in which he invested, enabling them to profit by millions of dollars. According to a statement from U.S. District Attorney Damien Williams, Lewis was charged with insider trading securities fraud with his private pilots Patrick O'Connor and Bryan Waugh.
The prosecution states that Lewis gave each of his pilots a loan of $500,000 in 2019 and pushed them to purchase shares in the cancer research company Mirati Therapeutics before the latter announced encouraging clinical outcomes. According to the indictment, O'Connor texted a buddy that he believed "the Boss has inside information."
Following Mirati's announcement of the successful results, its stock price rose 16.7% in a single day, and both pilots paid back Lewis' debts. The football club however has not issued any statement, but one of the football club’s spokespersons said, "This is a legal matter unconnected with the club, and as such we have no comment."
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Lewis would violate the Premier League's owners and directors test if he were found guilty of corruption, but the 86-year-old is no longer a person of authority at Tottenham after transferring his shares to the Lewis Family Trust last year.
What are the charges conferred upon Joe Lewis?
The British billionaire is charged with 16 charges of securities fraud, each of which has a maximum sentence of 20 to 25 years in jail, and three counts of conspiracy, each of which carries a maximum term of five years in prison. If all these charges are proven true, and the billionaire is adjudged guilty, he may have to spend the rest of his remaining life in prison.
