Tottenham owner Joe Lewis to appear in court on insider trading charges

Tottenham owner Joe Lewis has been arrested and will appear in court in the United States on Wednesday charged with giving insider trading tips to friends, lovers and even his personal pilots.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has charged the 86-year-old with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.

Prosecutors say Lewis is alleged to have used his access to confidential information to provide stock tips to individuals close to him, with the indictment referring to one girlfriend having made 849,000 US dollars (£657,000) on one of those tip-offs.

Lewis was arrested on Wednesday morning, prosecutors said. A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office said Lewis would appear at Manhattan Federal Court in the afternoon.

Lewis’ legal counsel David Zornow, from the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom firm, said: “The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment.

“Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.”

Each of the first 13 counts of securities fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, Manhattan prosecutors said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, had announced on Tuesday that Lewis had been indicted over a “brazen insider trading scheme”.

Prosecutors said Lewis, by virtue of his investments in certain companies, received material and non-public information about these companies.

British investor and billionaire businessman Joseph Lewis charged with insider trading and financial fraudhttps://t.co/Ceo6fAq5De

— US