Tottenham club owner Joe Lewis arrested on insider trading charges

Joe Lewis, the British billionaire who owns the Tottenham soccer team, was taken into US federal custody in New York City on Wednesday, where he awaited an initial court appearance on insider trading charges alleging that he fed corporate secrets to romantic partners, personal assistants, friends and his pilots, earning them millions of dollars illegally.

Two pilots — Patrick O’Connor and Bryan ‘Marty’ Waugh — were also arrested, authorities said. All three men were expected to appear in Manhattan federal court.

US Attorney Damian Williams, who announced the charges on Tuesday night in a video, said in a release that Lewis was accused of “orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme” that utilised his access to corporate boardrooms to feed inside tips to friends and lovers.

“Those folks then traded on that inside information — and made millions of dollars in the stock market — because, thanks to Lewis, those bets were a sure thing,” Williams said. "That’s classic corporate corruption. It’s cheating. And it’s against the law — laws that apply to everyone, no matter who you are.”

David M. Zornow, an attorney for Lewis, said his client had come to the US “to answer these ill-conceived charges” and would fight them vigorously.

“The government has made an egregious error in judgement in charging Mr. Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” Zornow said in a statement.

Lawyers for the pilots did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment.

Lewis is charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy. O'Connor, 66, of Preston Hollow, New York, and Waugh, 64, of Lynchburg, Virginia, each face seven counts of securities fraud and a conspiracy count.

Lewis has a fortune that Forbes estimates at $6.1 billion, with assets in real estate, biotechnology, energy and agriculture, along with Tottenham Hotspur, one of England's most storied soccer clubs, which Lewis purchased in 2001.

Under his ownership, the Premier League club has built a state-of-the-art stadium at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion. It features an NFL field below the moveable football pitch, as Tottenham has a long-term agreement with the NFL to stage regular-season games in London.

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