Billionaire Tottenham Hotspur boss is accused of insider trading in the United States. He once sniped the pound global with Soros | Lewis | Billionaire
The name of billionaire and Tottenham Hotspur football club owner Lewis, who has always been low-key and almost refused media interviews, has rarely appeared on global media headlines.
He used to be one of the world's most powerful forex traders, joining the short selling team of financial giant Soros during the 1992 pound crisis, sniping the pound and gaining huge wealth. Due to his fame in the global forex industry and his low profile, in recent years, some people have impersonated him and set up the Joe Lewis Trading website to deceive investors into money, staging an international scam of "real and fake Lewis".
However, this time, it was really 86 year old Lewis himself who got into trouble. On Tuesday, local time on the 25th, US prosecutors stated that they accused Lewis of committing multiple suspected insider trading cases.
He is accused of leaking non-public information about his investment company to employees, colleagues, friends, and lovers, and providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds to some of them for transactions. The US accuses him of 19 charges, including securities fraud, collusion in securities fraud, and making false statements.
According to the indictment of the Manhattan Federal Court, Lewis and his accomplices collectively earned millions of dollars using stolen information.
According to the Forbes Real Time Rich List, a journalist from First Financial News found that Lewis currently has total assets of around 6.1 billion US dollars, ranking 444th globally.
US prosecutors: engaged in insider trading continuously for eight years
Lewis is the founder and major investor of the globally renowned private investment firm Tavistock Group. Tavistock Group currently invests in over 200 companies in 15 countries around the world, covering real estate, sports events, and more, including English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur.
The US accuses Lewis of sharing internal information about the companies he invested in, including listed companies Solid Biosciences and Mirati Therapeutics, beef producer Australian Agriculture Corporation, and a company called BCTG that is conducting acquisition business.
"The US government made a serious judgment mistake in accusing Lewis, and this 86 year old gentleman was upright and accomplished. Lewis voluntarily came to the United States to respond to these thoughtless accusations, and we will vigorously defend him in court," said Zorno, a lawyer at Sida Law Firm and lawyer for Lewis, in a statement
It is reported that people who share information with Lewis include his girlfriend, his personal assistant on the $250 million super yacht where he sometimes resides, and his two private pilots.
US prosecutors claim that for at least eight years, Lewis used information obtained as a member of certain company boards to help those around him know when to buy or sell stocks before stock prices fell.
It is reported that in 2019, he revealed to pilots the financial losses that AAC would suffer due to flooding in Queensland, Australia, and urged them to sell the company's shares before the information was disclosed. He also provided his pilots with a loan of $500000 each to buy stocks.
According to the indictment, the pilot was unable to execute the transaction in a timely manner, but it is reported that one of the pilots sent an email to the stockbroker, in which he wrote, "I just hope the boss can give us some tips earlier.".
In the same year, Lewis told his girlfriend about the upcoming transaction and clinical trial results involving Solid Biosciences, and soon after she purchased $700000 worth of stock in the company.
Prosecutors claim that in late 2019, after receiving the latest information about a clinical trial of Solid Biosciences, Lewis told his girlfriend to sell the company's stock and purchase the stock of tumor therapy company Mirati Therapeutics.
Williams, the US prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, stated that Lewis "abused his authority to enter the company's board of directors," and the reminders he conveyed ensured that his colleagues' bets were positive.
Williams said, "Lewis used insider information to compensate employees or give gifts to friends and loved ones. This is cheating and illegal."
Low key top foreign exchange trader
Lewis was born in eastern London and dropped out of school at the age of 15 to join the family catering industry. What made him famous in World War I was Black Wednesday during the 1992 pound crisis.
As mentioned earlier, at that time he joined the short selling camp of Soros and gained huge wealth in the pound crash on Black Wednesday. Soros made a profit of £ 1 billion in this battle, and Lewis did not confirm the specific amount of his profit to the public. However, there were rumors in the market that he made more money in this transaction than Soros. Since then, Lewis has officially entered the world's top forex traders and is known as a "currency speculator".
Lewis only publicly acknowledged his huge profits during the 1995 Mexican financial crisis, when he successfully shorted the peso and his wealth doubled again.
Lewis has also made mistakes in the investment field. He once invested in Wall Street bank Bear Stearns and ultimately lost $1 billion in the 2008 financial crisis.
Starting from the 1980s, considering tax avoidance and other reasons, Lewis moved to the Bahamas to live. It is reported that 86 year old Lewis still conducts foreign exchange transactions at his residence in the Bahamas every day, and most of his rooms are equipped with screens to monitor exchange rates, making it easier for him to view the market.
However, due to Lewis being very low-key and impersonating him, he has engaged in a £ 20.5 million fraud activity in the past 10 years.
Fake Lewis, who is over 60 years old, opened a website called Joe Lewis Trading, which made many traders think it was founded by billionaire Lewis and absorbed huge amounts of funds, including many investors who provided retirement and savings funds. After the Dongchuang incident, the British legal authorities sentenced the case in 2020.
