British property billionaire and Tottenham Hotspur majority owner Joe Lewis has been charged with insider trading in the US.
US attorney Damian Williams said: “My office, the Southern District of New York, has indicted Joe Lewis, the British billionaire, for orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme.”
Lewis faces a 19-count indictment with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.
Williams added: “We allege that for years Joe Lewis abused his access to corporate boardrooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots and his friends… It is classic corporate corruption.”
The British businessman, who is based in the Bahamas, owns more than 85% of the Premier League club through his company ENIC and dozens of other investments through the Tavistock Group.
The majority of his estimated £5bn fortune is invested in real estate.
