Joe Lewis, the British billionaire, could be disqualified from owning Tottenham Hotspur if he is found guilty of “orchestrating a brazen insider trader scheme”.
In a video posted on social media, US attorney Damian Williams confirmed Lewis “has been indicted and will face justice” in the southern district of New York and accused the 86-year-old of using inside information to “shower gifts on his friends and lovers”.
Under Premier League ownership rules, a person is disqualified from owning or acting as a director at a club if “they have a conviction (which is not a Spent Conviction) imposed by a court of the United Kingdom or a competent court of foreign jurisdiction”.
The Premier League toughened its Owners’ and Directors’ Test rules this year, adding fraud as a disqualifying criteria to its list of convictions. Lewis has been charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.
David Zornow, Lewis’s lawyer, insisted the US government had “made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment”. Lewis, who was born in east London and now lives in the Bahamas, has visited the US voluntarily to respond to the “ill-conceived” indictment, Zornow said. He added that the charges would be “defended vigorously in court”.
Lewis first bought shares in Spurs in 1991 – paying Sir Alan Sugar £22m for his stake – and the club is now owned via the businessman’s Enic International Ltd investment company.
According to Companies House documents Lewis ceased being a person “with significant control” of Tottenham last October.
A conviction would likely prevent him gaining significant control again.
Tottenham released a statement on Wednesday morning, stating: “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.”
Should Lewis, who was estimated to be worth more than £5bn in the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, be convicted he would not be permitted to own the club.
“We allege that, for years, Joe Lewis abused his access to corporate board rooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots, and his friends,” US attorney Williams said in the video.
“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.”
It is claimed Lewis used his position as board member to share information on companies, including Australian Agricultural Co., Mirati Therapeutics and Solid Biosciences, with friends and associates.
Lewis’s investment company – Tavistock Group – owns more than 200 assets around the world, including Tottenham and pub chain Mitchells & Butlers.
i has approached Lewis for comment.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/w8A045W
Post a Comment