Billionaire Joe Lewis pleads guilty to insider trading

UK billionaire Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns Tottenham Hotspur football club, has pleaded guilty to insider trading in a US court.

Lewis, 86, was accused of passing on information about his companies to his private pilots, friends, personal assistants and romantic partners.

US authorities say that the fraud netted millions of dollars in profit.

Lewis pleaded guilty to conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Lewis founded the investment firm Tavistock Group, which has ownership stakes in a large array of property, sports, finance, energy and life sciences companies.

He was ranked 39th in the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated worth of more than £5bn ($6.4bn).

He was arrested in July 2023 and charged with sixteen counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.

Prosecutors had alleged that between 2013 and 2021, he abused his access to corporate board rooms and passed the insider information on to his contacts.

US attorney Damian Williams said those contacts made millions of dollars in "sure thing" bets on the stock market.

In one instance, according to the indictment, Lewis told a girlfriend to invest in a biotech company in July 2019, before the results of a clinical trial by the company were made public.

He then allegedly logged into her bank account himself and used $700,000 to invest into the company, eventually netting a profit of $849,000.

In another instance, Lewis allegedly wired his private pilots Patrick O'Connor and Bryan Waugh $500,000 each to buy stock in a company, after tipping them off with confidential information.

Following the loan, Mr O'Connor allegedly texted a friend "Boss lent Marty and I $500,000 each for this" and "the Boss has inside info... otherwise why would he make us invest".

Mr O'Connor and Mr Waugh have also been charged with securities fraud.

The indictment listed other alleged incidents of Mr Lewis telling friends, girlfriends and employees to invest in stocks based on insider information.

Prosecutors also said that as part of the scheme, Lewis hid the true size of his ownership stake in one company, Mirati Therapeutics.

As part of the plea deal, one of Lewis' companies, Broad Bay Ltd, also pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was fined $50m (£39m).

In a statement, Mr Williams said: "Today's guilty pleas once again confirm - as I said in announcing the charges against Joseph Lewis just six months ago - the law applies to everyone, no matter who you are or how much wealth you have."

In court in Manhattan on Wednesday, Lewis admitted he knew what he was doing was wrong.

"I am so embarrassed and I apologize to the court for my conduct," he said.

The charges Lewis pleaded guilty to carry a total maximum sentence of 45 years in prison, although federal guidelines call for a sentence of between 18 and 24 months. The plea agreement allows Lewis to appeal the decision if he is sentenced to prison time.

Lewis was born in London's East End and took over a restaurant business started by his father before selling it to focus on currency speculation and investments.

He was reportedly one of the investors who made money betting heavily against the pound prior to "Black Wednesday" - the UK's withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in September 1992.

In 2007 he took a stake in Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns but reportedly lost more than $1bn when the firm failed during the financial crisis the following year.

A long-time resident of the Bahamas, Lewis' bail terms prohibited him from leaving the United States and limited him to traveling between his properties in New York, Florida and Georgia.

Lewis' family trust owns a majority stake in the holding company that operates Tottenham Hotspur football club. But according to financial documents the club filed with the UK's Companies House in 2022, Lewis no longer has "significant control" over the club.