Owner of Postecoglou’s Tottenham indicted in US

The owner of Ange Postecoglou’s English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, Joe Lewis, has been indicted in New York over an alleged insider trading scheme described by a prominent attorney as “brazen” and “classic corporate corruption”.

“My office … has indicted Joe Lewis, the British billionaire, for orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme,” Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a video release on Tuesday.

“We allege that for years Joe Lewis abused his access to corporate boardrooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots and his friends.

“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.”

The attorney described Lewis’s behaviour as “classic corporate corruption”.

“Now, none of this was necessary,” Williams said.

“Joe Lewis is a wealthy man. But as we allege, he used inside information as a way to compensate his employees or to shower gifts on his friends and lovers.

“That’s classic corporate corruption. It’s cheating, and it’s against the law. Laws that apply to everyone, no matter who you are.”

Lewis, 86, is the founder and primary investor of Bahamas-based investment firm Tavistock Group.

He was charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, for alleged crimes spanning from 2013 to 2021.

Tavistock and a spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.

Lewis is worth $US6.1 billion ($A9b), according to Forbes magazine.

He bought a controlling stake in Premier League Tottenham from Lord Alan Sugar in 2001 for Sterling 22 million ($A41.8m).

Former Socceroos coach Postecoglou was appointed manager at London club Tottenham in June, following a successful spell in charge at Scottish giants Celtic.

– with Reuters