- Lewis initially pleaded not guilty to 19 counts of insider trading and conspiracy
- The British billionaire has amassed a fortune estimated to be worth $6.1 billion
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
Joe Lewis, the British billionaire whose family owns a majority stake in Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur, pleaded guilty Wednesday to passing inside information to his private pilots and girlfriend.
The 86-year-old was due to appear in a New York courtroom again this month for his alleged role in a “brazen” insider trading scheme.
Lewis, whose fortune is estimated at $6.1 billion, initially denied 19 charges of insider trading and conspiracy in a Manhattan courtroom in July. But on Wednesday he pleaded guilty to three counts of securities fraud.
Lewis surrendered to the FBI before being released on a $300 million bond, secured by his superyacht Aviva – worth $250 million – and personal aircraft.
He was ordered to surrender his passport and told he could not leave the United States.
British billionaire Joe Lewis pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of securities fraud
Tottenham described the charges against Lewis as a ‘legal matter not related to the club’
Lewis faced accusations of “orchestrating a brazen insider trading” by passing on business tips to friends, personal assistants, private pilots and romantic partners.
The alleged crimes are said to have taken place between 2013 and 2021, when Lewis was Spurs’ owner.
Lewis appeared in federal court on July 26, along with two of his pilots and co-defendants: Patrick O’Connor and Bryan Waugh. They are suspected of making millions of dollars in illegal profits from Lewis’s tips. They also pleaded not guilty.
During the hearing, the billionaire was charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy. Both charges carry a maximum prison sentence of five to 25 years.
The 86-year-old is pictured next to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy (right) in north London
O’Connor, of New York, and Waugh, of Virginia, each face seven counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy.
Lewis’ Tavistock Group has investments in more than 200 companies and 13 countries, including ENIC, which bought a controlling stake in Tottenham in 2001.
But Spurs responded to the Lewis scandal with a statement describing the charges as a “legal matter unrelated to the club.”
Ownership of ENIC passed to the Lewis Family Discretionary Trust in October last year and Lewis is not a beneficiary, meaning he is no longer subject to Premier League rules, which exclude owners under investigation by a criminal authority.
The family trust is managed on behalf of its beneficiaries by two independent professional trustees – Katie Louise Booth, a Briton living in the Bahamas, and Bryan Antoine Glinton, a Bahamian lawyer – and they have since been listed as those with significant control at Spurs. October.