In a video announcement, US Attorney Damian Williams accused British billionaire Joe Lewis of using inside information to “shower gifts on his friends and lovers.”
Williams said that Lewis had been indicted on charges of securities fraud and conspiracy. He alleged that Lewis had used his access to corporate boardrooms to provide inside information to his romantic partners, personal assistants, private pilots, and friends.
Williams said that Lewis’s acquaintances had used this information to make millions of dollars in the stock market.
“Thanks to Lewis, those bets were a sure thing,” Williams said.
Lewis’s lawyer, David Zornow, said that the charges against his client were an “egregious error in judgment.” He said that Lewis had come to the US voluntarily to defend himself against the “ill-conceived charges.”
A spokesperson for Tottenham Hotspur, which Lewis owns, said that the club had no comment on the charges.
Lewis is one of Britain’s richest men. He owns hundreds of assets, including Tottenham Hotspur and a stake in the UK pub chain Mitchells & Butlers. He was ranked 39th in the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated worth of more than £5bn.
The charges against Lewis are the latest in a series of high-profile insider trading cases brought by the US government.
In recent years, the government has charged several Wall Street insiders with using illegal means to make millions of dollars in the stock market.
