The family trust that owns the Tottenham Hotspur football club in England is owned by billionaire Joe Lewis, who pleaded guilty to US insider trading charges on Wednesday. According to Forbes, the 86-year-old entrepreneur, whose family is worth $6.2 billion, founded Tavistock Group and lives in the Bahamas, where he pays low taxes. He was charged in 2019 with sharing secrets he learned in corporate boardrooms with romantic partners, friends, personal assistants, and private pilots who then used the information to make profits.
Prosecutors allege Lewis tipped his associates about four companies he was an investor in between 2019 and 2021 and urged them to profit from the information. The companies included biotech firms Mirati Therapeutics and Solid Biosciences. Among the tips was one involving a clinical trial of Solid that Lewis told his girlfriend, who bought the company’s stock before the news broke and made $700,000 in profits.
He also allegedly shared the same information with two of his friends and told his personal pilots about the trials’ results, who also purchased shares. Prosecutors say Lewis and his associates made millions from the tips.
A plea deal in the case requires Lewis to pay $50 million in financial penalties, and he and Broad Bay Limited, a Bahamian entity he owns, will have to resign seats they control on the boards of all publicly traded companies in the United States. The plea also includes a five-year probation period.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison sentence of between 18 and 24 months, though Lewis can seek less time than that. His sentencing is scheduled for March 28. He remained silent as he left the Manhattan courtroom, shielded from photographers by his aides and a lawyer.
He was charged with 16 securities fraud counts and three conspiracy counts relating to the alleged crimes between 2013 and 2021. As part of the deal, Lewis has agreed to plead one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud. A judge must approve the plea agreement before he can be released from prison.
”I knew that I was violating a legal duty not to make those recommendations because the nonpublic information had been entrusted to me in confidence,” Lewis said in his plea. ”I knew at the time what I was doing was wrong, and I am so sorry.’
The US attorney for the southern district of New York, Damian Williams, commended Lewis for admitting his guilt. ”Today’s guilty pleas once again confirm- as I said when we announced these charges six months ago- that the law applies to everyone, no matter how much money you have or how powerful you are,” Williams said.
Lewis, a native of London, began his career at his father’s greasy spoon pub. He later sold it to invest in real estate and founded the Tavistock Group. He now holds a minority stake in Tottenham, where he has helped build the Premier League club’s state-of-the-art stadium.