Joe Lewis, the British billionaire whose household belief owns the Tottenham Hotspur soccer staff, was taken into U.S. federal custody in New York City on Wednesday, the place he awaited an preliminary court docket look on insider buying and selling fees alleging that he fed company secrets and techniques to romantic companions, private assistants, pals and his pilots, incomes them thousands and thousands of {dollars} illegally.
Two pilots – Patrick O’Connor and Bryan ‘Marty’ Waugh – had been additionally arrested, authorities mentioned. All three males had been anticipated to seem in court docket later within the day.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who introduced the costs Tuesday night time in a video, mentioned Lewis was accused of “orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme” that utilized his entry to company boardrooms to feed inside tricks to pals and lovers.
“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,” Williams mentioned. “That’s classic corporate corruption. It’s cheating. And it’s against the law – laws that apply to everyone, no matter who you are.”
David M. Zornow, an lawyer for Lewis, mentioned his shopper had come to the U.S. “to answer these ill-conceived charges” and would battle them vigorously.
“The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr. Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” Zornow mentioned in an announcement.
Lawyers for the pilots didn’t instantly reply to messages searching for remark.
Lewis is charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy. O’Connor, 66, of Preston Hollow, New York, and Waugh, 64, of Lynchburg, Virginia, every face seven counts of securities fraud and a conspiracy rely.
Lewis has a fortune that Forbes estimates at $6.1 billion, with belongings in actual property, biotechnology, power and agriculture. He purchased an curiosity in Tottenham Hotspur, certainly one of England’s most storied soccer golf equipment, in 2001.
Under his possession, the Premier League membership constructed a state-of-the-art stadium at an estimated price of greater than $1 billion. It options an NFL subject beneath the moveable soccer pitch, as Tottenham has a long-term settlement with the NFL to stage regular-season video games in London.
Today, a belief benefiting members of Mr. Lewis’ household is almost all proprietor of ENIC, the holding firm that owns the staff. Lewis himself shouldn’t be a beneficiary of that belief and relinquished operational management of the membership final October, in accordance with company filings.
Lewis’ Tavistock Group has stakes in additional than 200 firms all over the world, in accordance with its web site, and his artwork assortment boasts works by Picasso, Matisse, Degas and extra. His enterprise connections embody Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Justin Timberlake, with whom he constructed a Bahamian oceanside resort that opened in 2010.
According to the indictment, Lewis’ investments in varied firms gave him management of board seats, the place he positioned associates who let him know what they discovered behind the scenes. Prosecutors say Lewis improperly doled out that confidential info between 2019 and 2021 to his chosen recipients and urged them to revenue off of it.
At one level, in accordance with the indictment, he even loaned his two non-public pilots $500,000 apiece to purchase inventory in a most cancers drug firm that he knew had gotten – however not but publicly disclosed – encouraging outcomes from a scientific trial.
According to court docket papers, O’Connor texted a buddy in reference to that mortgage to purchase the inventory, telling the buddy the “Boss is helping us out and told us to get ASAP,” and warranted the buddy that “All conversations on app is encrypted so all good. No one can ever see.”
Lewis additionally gave the tip to his girlfriend, his private assistant, a poker buddy and a buddy with whom he had a romance, the indictment mentioned. After the corporate introduced the scientific trial information, the inventory gained practically 17% in a day, and Lewis’ pals and workers all finally bought at a revenue. The pilots repaid the loans at Lewis’ request, in accordance with the indictment.
Another time, in accordance with the submitting, Lewis gleaned some closed-door details about a muscular dystrophy drug firm wherein he was a serious investor. The info allegedly included a deliberate monetary transfer and a few scientific trial information.
Lewis’ biotech hedge fund signed a confidentiality settlement that prohibited disclosing the knowledge or buying and selling on it. But in accordance with the indictment, he informed his girlfriend to purchase the corporate’s inventory, then informed the pilots the identical as they flew the couple to Massachusetts from Seoul, the place the 2 had been staying.
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