Tottenham Hotspur owner and British Billionaire, Joe Lewis, has been indicted for orchestrating what a US official has described as a “brazen insider trading scheme”.
Statement from US Attorney Damian Williams on Tuesday 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.
“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.”
Statement of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams on U.S. v. Joseph Lewis pic.twitter.com/9rGTTYVx6h
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) July 25, 2023
Lewis is being charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, Reuters reports.
The 86-year-old has been the owner of Tottenham since 2001 when he bought a controlling stake in the Premier League club from Lord Sugar for £22m.
It remains to be seen how this story develops and how it will affect Tottenham as Lewis will now have to answer for his crimes and go through the justice system.
This will be reason we don’t buy any more players