Tottenham owner Joe Lewis, 86, pleads NOT GUILTY to insider trading charges and posts staggering £230m bond
TOTTENHAM billionaire Joe Lewis has pled not guilty to charges of insider training.
The 86-year-old, whose family trust controls a majority of Spurs, surrendered to the US authorities in Manhattan and appeared in court on Wednesday.
He entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo in Manhattan federal court.
Prosecutor Nicolas Roos says Lewis would be released on $300 million bond secured by his yacht, named the Aviva, and private aircraft.
Two of Lewis’ pilots, Patrick O’Connor and Bryan Waugh, also pleaded not guilty to related insider trading charges, after being accused of making millions of dollars in illegal profit from Lewis’ tips. Their bail was set at $250,000 each.
Lewis was charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, for alleged crimes spanning from 2013 to 2021, and could theoretically face decades in prison.
O’Connor and Waugh, who are residents of New York and Virginia, respectively, each face seven counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy.
“None of this was necessary,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement. “Joe Lewis is a wealthy man.”
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