Joe Lewis: How one of Britain's richest people broke insider trading laws

Joe Lewis one one of Britain's richest people

Billionaire Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns Tottenham Hotspur football club, was fined $5m (£4m) Thursday, but will avoid prison after pleading guilty to insider trading.

This is the story of how his plan to enrich his lovers, friends, and employees unravelled.

The pilot had just touched down in Orlando when he texted a friend with a hot tip: "Boss is helping us out."

The "boss" he was referring to was British tycoon Joe Lewis, and the helping hand was a loan of half a million dollars. And it came with juicy stock advice: buy shares in a pharmaceutical company that was about to announce positive results for a new cancer drug.

Two weeks later, the pilot texted again, noting "the Boss has inside info" and "knows the outcome".

He was right - the company's stock price jumped more than 16%. The pilot cashed out and repaid the "Boss".

But there was one big hitch. The whole scheme was illegal.

One of Britain's richest men, the 87-year-old Lewis pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of an agreement with prosecutors in January.

At a hearing in Manhattan on Thursday, he was fined $5m (£4m) and sentenced to three years of probation, avoiding jail time. Lewis arrived in court wearing an eye patch.

Federal guidelines in the case called for a sentence of between 18 months and two years in prison, but both defence and prosecutors urged leniency, citing Lewis' guilty plea, co-operation with authorities and poor health.

Judge Jessica Clarke said his crimes were "serious" and "strike at the integrity of our markets" but said his circumstances did not warrant prison.

In court, Lewis referred to his childhood in London during the Blitz and said: "At an early age, I learned how precious life is. I made a terrible mistake. I broke the law. I am ashamed, sorry, and I hold myself accountable."

As part of the plea deal, one of Lewis' companies, Broad Bay Ltd, also pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was fined $44m (£34.8m).

A substantial part of his fraudulent activity, according to an indictment, was not meant to pad his estimated worth of $6.2bn (£4.9bn).

Instead, the incident with his pilot Patrick O'Connor was just one of a number of times that he passed along insider information about his companies to his private pilots, friends, personal assistants and romantic partners, in order to enrich his close associates.

In part, the billionaire hatched the scheme because he felt bad for never setting up formal retirement plans for his pilots, according to a statement he made in court at the time of his guilty plea.

Lewis was born in London's East End and took over a restaurant business started by his father before selling it to focus on currency speculation and investments.

He was reportedly one of the investors who made money betting heavily against the pound prior to "Black Wednesday" - the UK's withdrawal from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in September 1992.

He founded the investment firm Tavistock Group, which has ownership stakes in a large array of property, sports, finance, energy and life sciences companies.

Lewis was ranked 39th in the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List and is best known for his ownership of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, which he bought a controlling stake in for £22m in 2001 - a sum then worth around $32m.

In 2022, control was handed over to a family trust, and financial documents the club filed with the UK's Companies House indicate that Lewis no longer has "significant control" over the club.

His current fortune includes homes in several countries, a huge art collection and $250m (£200m) yacht, which he used to secure a bail bond after his arrest in July 2023.

Aviva, Joe Lewis's superyacht, seen in London in 2018

His position in the financial world gave him access to boardroom secrets, and for years, prosecutors said, he tipped off associates so that they could take advantage, in a fraud that netted millions of dollars.

In addition to pilots and workers on his yacht, romantic partners were also on the receiving end of his criminal largesse.

In July 2019, a company called Solid Biosciences that Tavistock had invested in was looking for fresh cash. While considering the deal, Lewis was given confidential information about a clinical trial.

He was staying with his girlfriend in South Korea at the time, and told her to pour money into the company. She invested around $700,000.

The following day the couple returned via private plane to the US. Along the way, Lewis shared his insider tip with his pilots.

As results of the clinical trial were released, the company's shares skyrocketed. Lewis' girlfriend more than doubled her money.

The fraud also went beyond insider trading, prosecutors said. Starting in 2013, Lewis concealed the true scale of his holdings in companies in order to obtain favourable terms for stock deals.

His pilot, O'Connor, pleaded guilty to insider trading charges and will be sentenced in May.

Another pilot, Bryan Waugh, pleaded not guilty and will go on trial later this year. His lawyers have argued in court filings that he did not know that the information he received from Lewis was confidential and not in the public domain.