Tottenham’s billionaire owner Joe Lewis charged with insider trading in US

Tottenham’s billionaire owner Joe Lewis charged with insider trading in US

British billionaire Joe Lewis, owner of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club and majority owner of Australia’s biggest premium beef producer AACo, has been charged with insider trading in the US.

Federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment in New York that the 86-year-old passed on inside information from companies in which he was a large investor to friends, including his personal pilots, assistants, and romantic partners. Lewis, the founder of investment firm Tavistock Group, faces more than a dozen charges, including securities fraud.
“None of this was necessary, Joe Lewis was a wealthy man,” Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Tuesday. “But as we allege he used inside information as a way to compensate his employees or shower gifts on his friends and lovers.”

Prosecutors didn’t announce Lewis’ arrest with the indictment.
“The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” Lewis’s lawyer David M. Zornow said in a statement. “Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.”

Lewis has a 51 per cent stake in AACo through his own investment vehicle Tavistock. The $1 billion-plus company is the nation’s largest cattle herd operator and owns about 6.4 million hectares, equivalent to 1 per cent, of Australia’s landmass.
‘The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment.’

David M. Zornow, Joe Lewis’ lawyer
Prosecutors claim Lewis was engaged in insider trading for eight years, passing on material non-public information about several companies, including Solid Biosciences, Australian Agricultural Co and Mirati Therapeutics. In one instance, Lewis allegedly loaned his pilots $US500,000 ($741,000) each so they could buy shares before a company’s clinical trial news became public.

A call and email to Tavistock’s media team after hours weren’t immediately returned. Tottenham didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Lewis, who has a net worth of $US6.6 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is the latest figure to be swept up in an insider-trading crackdown led by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Last month, prosecutors announced criminal charges against 10 people in four separate cases, including investors in a special acquisition company poised to take Donald Trump’s fledgling media company public.

But Lewis is the highest-profile investor the office has prosecuted for insider trading this year. The Bahamas-based businessman’s firm has stakes in more than 200 businesses, with investments across real estate, hotels and sports, in 13 countries.

Prosecutors also accuse Lewis of defrauding the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Mirati Therapeutics, by hiding his true ownership of shares through shell corporations and false filings.

For several years, authorities say, Lewis used his access to corporate boardrooms to tap valuable information and leak it to his associates before it became public. In 2019, members of Australian Agricultural’s board of directors told Lewis the company had suffered material losses following widespread flooding and that insurance wouldn’t cover its cattle losses.
According to the indictment, Lewis called his two personal pilots, tipped them to the material non-public information and told them to sell their stock in the company immediately.

In the same year, he allegedly told his girlfriend in South Korea to purchase shares of Solid Biosciences, a biotech company, after learning about an upcoming private investment and clinical trial. The girlfriend paid $US700,000 — “nearly all of her available funds” — to purchase 150,000 shares, according to the indictment. She sold the shares and made a $US849,000 profit, prosecutors said.
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Tottenham’s billionaire owner Joe Lewis charged with insider trading in US
ByAva Benny-Morrison
July 26, 2023 — 1.01pm
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British billionaire Joe Lewis, owner of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club and majority owner of Australia’s biggest premium beef producer AACo, has been charged with insider trading in the US.

Federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment in New York that the 86-year-old passed on inside information from companies in which he was a large investor to friends, including his personal pilots, assistants, and romantic partners. Lewis, the founder of investment firm Tavistock Group, faces more than a dozen charges, including securities fraud.

Billionaire Joe Lewis will defend the fraud charges.CREDIT:AP

“None of this was necessary, Joe Lewis was a wealthy man,” Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Tuesday. “But as we allege he used inside information as a way to compensate his employees or shower gifts on his friends and lovers.”

Prosecutors didn’t announce Lewis’ arrest with the indictment.

“The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” Lewis’s lawyer David M. Zornow said in a statement. “Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.”

Lewis has a 51 per cent stake in AACo through his own investment vehicle Tavistock. The $1 billion-plus company is the nation’s largest cattle herd operator and owns about 6.4 million hectares, equivalent to 1 per cent, of Australia’s landmass.

‘The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment.’

David M. Zornow, Joe Lewis’ lawyer
Prosecutors claim Lewis was engaged in insider trading for eight years, passing on material non-public information about several companies, including Solid Biosciences, Australian Agricultural Co and Mirati Therapeutics. In one instance, Lewis allegedly loaned his pilots $US500,000 ($741,000) each so they could buy shares before a company’s clinical trial news became public.

A call and email to Tavistock’s media team after hours weren’t immediately returned. Tottenham didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Lewis, who has a net worth of $US6.6 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is the latest figure to be swept up in an insider-trading crackdown led by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Last month, prosecutors announced criminal charges against 10 people in four separate cases, including investors in a special acquisition company poised to take Donald Trump’s fledgling media company public.

But Lewis is the highest-profile investor the office has prosecuted for insider trading this year. The Bahamas-based businessman’s firm has stakes in more than 200 businesses, with investments across real estate, hotels and sports, in 13 countries.

Prosecutors also accuse Lewis of defrauding the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Mirati Therapeutics, by hiding his true ownership of shares through shell corporations and false filings.

For several years, authorities say, Lewis used his access to corporate boardrooms to tap valuable information and leak it to his associates before it became public. In 2019, members of Australian Agricultural’s board of directors told Lewis the company had suffered material losses following widespread flooding and that insurance wouldn’t cover its cattle losses.

Joe Lewis owns the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club, which has the motto, “To Dare Is To Do”.CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES

According to the indictment, Lewis called his two personal pilots, tipped them to the material non-public information and told them to sell their stock in the company immediately.

In the same year, he allegedly told his girlfriend in South Korea to purchase shares of Solid Biosciences, a biotech company, after learning about an upcoming private investment and clinical trial. The girlfriend paid $US700,000 — “nearly all of her available funds” — to purchase 150,000 shares, according to the indictment. She sold the shares and made a $US849,000 profit, prosecutors said.

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Lewis also allegedly tipped two personal assistants working aboard his 98-metre super yacht Aviva to invest in special-purpose acquisition company, BCTG, as the stock could “double, triple or even quadruple”, according to the indictment.

Before climbing the billionaires’ list, Lewis built a small fortune with a themed restaurant chain and then pivoted to currency trading in the late 1970s. He made hundreds of millions betting against the British pound and Mexican peso in the 90s. He used his investment vehicle, Tavistock Group, to diversify into real estate, sports, luxury hotels and biotech.
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Tottenham’s billionaire owner Joe Lewis charged with insider trading in US
ByAva Benny-Morrison
July 26, 2023 — 1.01pm
Save

Share
Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size
British billionaire Joe Lewis, owner of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club and majority owner of Australia’s biggest premium beef producer AACo, has been charged with insider trading in the US.

Federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment in New York that the 86-year-old passed on inside information from companies in which he was a large investor to friends, including his personal pilots, assistants, and romantic partners. Lewis, the founder of investment firm Tavistock Group, faces more than a dozen charges, including securities fraud.

Billionaire Joe Lewis will defend the fraud charges.CREDIT:AP

“None of this was necessary, Joe Lewis was a wealthy man,” Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement on Tuesday. “But as we allege he used inside information as a way to compensate his employees or shower gifts on his friends and lovers.”

Prosecutors didn’t announce Lewis’ arrest with the indictment.

“The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” Lewis’s lawyer David M. Zornow said in a statement. “Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.”

Lewis has a 51 per cent stake in AACo through his own investment vehicle Tavistock. The $1 billion-plus company is the nation’s largest cattle herd operator and owns about 6.4 million hectares, equivalent to 1 per cent, of Australia’s landmass.

‘The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment.’

David M. Zornow, Joe Lewis’ lawyer
Prosecutors claim Lewis was engaged in insider trading for eight years, passing on material non-public information about several companies, including Solid Biosciences, Australian Agricultural Co and Mirati Therapeutics. In one instance, Lewis allegedly loaned his pilots $US500,000 ($741,000) each so they could buy shares before a company’s clinical trial news became public.

A call and email to Tavistock’s media team after hours weren’t immediately returned. Tottenham didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Lewis, who has a net worth of $US6.6 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is the latest figure to be swept up in an insider-trading crackdown led by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Last month, prosecutors announced criminal charges against 10 people in four separate cases, including investors in a special acquisition company poised to take Donald Trump’s fledgling media company public.

But Lewis is the highest-profile investor the office has prosecuted for insider trading this year. The Bahamas-based businessman’s firm has stakes in more than 200 businesses, with investments across real estate, hotels and sports, in 13 countries.

Prosecutors also accuse Lewis of defrauding the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Mirati Therapeutics, by hiding his true ownership of shares through shell corporations and false filings.

For several years, authorities say, Lewis used his access to corporate boardrooms to tap valuable information and leak it to his associates before it became public. In 2019, members of Australian Agricultural’s board of directors told Lewis the company had suffered material losses following widespread flooding and that insurance wouldn’t cover its cattle losses.

Joe Lewis owns the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club, which has the motto, “To Dare Is To Do”.CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES

According to the indictment, Lewis called his two personal pilots, tipped them to the material non-public information and told them to sell their stock in the company immediately.

In the same year, he allegedly told his girlfriend in South Korea to purchase shares of Solid Biosciences, a biotech company, after learning about an upcoming private investment and clinical trial. The girlfriend paid $US700,000 — “nearly all of her available funds” — to purchase 150,000 shares, according to the indictment. She sold the shares and made a $US849,000 profit, prosecutors said.

RELATED ARTICLE

Business investment
Billionaire beef battle sizzles as Andrew Forrest buys $11.6m wagyu stake
Lewis also allegedly tipped two personal assistants working aboard his 98-metre super yacht Aviva to invest in special-purpose acquisition company, BCTG, as the stock could “double, triple or even quadruple”, according to the indictment.

Before climbing the billionaires’ list, Lewis built a small fortune with a themed restaurant chain and then pivoted to currency trading in the late 1970s. He made hundreds of millions betting against the British pound and Mexican peso in the 90s. He used his investment vehicle, Tavistock Group, to diversify into real estate, sports, luxury hotels and biotech.

Lewis is widely known for his stake in the Spurs, a North London Premier League soccer club.

In the US, Tavistock’s investments include the Boston Waterfront redevelopment, the Wellington Equestrian and Golf Club near Palm Beach, Florida, and the St Regis hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, according to the company’s website.

Along with singer Justin Timberlake, golfers Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, Lewis also owns the exclusive Albany Bahamas Club, an enclave for the ultra-rich that was home to former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried before his arrest last year.

An avid art collector, Lewis sold a David Hockney piece for $US90.3 million in 2018 — setting a record at the time for the most expensive piece by a living artist to sell at auction.