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Joe Lewis, the billionaire actual property investor whose household owns Tottenham Hotspur soccer membership, has surrended to US authorities in New York, federal prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday.

Lewis was charged on Tuesday with 19 counts, together with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and make false statements, over a number of cases of alleged insider buying and selling.

The 86-year-old, who’s one among Britain’s richest males, is accused of tipping off staff, associates, associates and romantic pursuits with personal details about firms by which he had invested, and lending a few of them a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} to commerce on the information.

Based on the indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal courtroom on Tuesday, Lewis and his associates have been collectively in a position to make thousands and thousands of {dollars} utilizing the “stolen” data, which included beneficial outcomes from medical trials.

Lewis, whose investments are largely held by way of a portfolio firm, Tavistock Group, is alleged to have shared details about publicly traded life science teams Strong Biosciences and Mirati Therapeutics, in addition to beef producer Australian Agricultural Firm (AAC) and a particular goal acquisition firm, BCTG.

A lawyer for Lewis, David Zornow of Skadden Arps, stated in a press release: “The federal 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 reply these ill-conceived expenses, and we are going to defend him vigorously in courtroom.”

A consultant for Tavistock Group didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Amongst these with whom Lewis is alleged to have shared data are a girlfriend, private assistants aboard the $250mn superyacht on which he generally lives, and two of his non-public pilots.

For a interval of at the least eight years, Lewis used data he was given as a board member of sure firms to assist these in his orbit know when to purchase inventory or promote it earlier than its worth dropped, prosecutors stated.

In 2019, he allegedly informed the pilots in regards to the monetary losses that AAC would incur on account of flooding in Queensland and urged them to promote their investments within the firm earlier than the knowledge was disclosed. The pilots have been unable to execute the trades in time, in line with the indictment, however one among them allegedly emailed their stockbroker: “simply want the Boss would have given us a little bit earlier heads up”.

In the identical yr, prosecutors stated Lewis informed his girlfriend about an upcoming transaction and the outcomes of a medical trial involving Strong Biosciences, shortly after which she bought $700,000 value of the corporate’s shares. Later in 2019, Lewis informed his girlfriend to promote Strong’s inventory and purchase Mirati shares as an alternative, after receiving updates about one of many latter’s medical trials, prosecutors alleged.

Damian Williams, the US lawyer for the Southern District of New York, stated Lewis had “abused his entry to company boardrooms” and, that the ideas he handed on ensured that his associates’ “bets have been a positive factor”.

“He used inside data as a strategy to compensate his staff or to bathe presents on his associates and lovers,” Williams stated in a video assertion. “It’s dishonest, and it’s towards the regulation.”

Lewis’ Tavistock Group, which is predicated within the Bahamas, has publicly-declared investments in additional than 200 firms throughout 13 nations, together with the US, Mexico and the Caribbean. The group says its artwork assortment contains works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Gustav Klimt.

The billionaire, who was born in an east London pub, left faculty at 15, joined the household catering enterprise and went on to construct up his personal restaurant enterprise. He left the UK for the Bahamas in 1979.

The tax exile constructed his status as a foreign money speculator when he, like George Soros, wager towards the pound within the build-up to Black Wednesday in 1992. Nonetheless, he suffered a $1bn hit when Wall Road financial institution Bear Stearns, by which he was an investor, collapsed right into a rescue by JPMorgan in 2008.

The foreign money dealer’s profile grew when he took management of Tottenham, shopping for shares from British businessman Alan Sugar. In 2019, Spurs accomplished work on a £1.2bn stadium that has elevated its revenues, however followers have complained that the membership has failed so as to add a lot silverware to its trophy cupboard.

This text has been amended to make clear the possession of Tottenham Hotspur