AACo seeks legal advice on insider case against billionaire

afr.com:

The board of AACo says it has sought legal advice after insider trading charges were brought in the United States against the Australian beef giant’s largest shareholder, British billionaire Joe Lewis.

“The AACo board today became aware through public reports that the New York Southern District Attorney has alleged that Mr Lewis share non-public information of certain companies, including AACo,” the Brisbane-based company said in a statement on Thursday morning.

Joe Lewis, left, has denied claims about insider trading.  Reuters

The board had sought legal advice on matters relating to AACo but would not comment further, the announcement said.

Mr Lewis, via his lawyer in the US, has denied the charges and said they would be defended. Via his private company Tavistock, had over the past decade accumulated a 51 per cent holding in AACo, among a portfolio of almost 200 businesses including Joe’s American Bar and Grill chain.

The announcement comes a day after US New York Southern district attorney Damian Williams alleged Mr Lewis was engaged in a “brazen” scheme. In the AACo case, the indictment alleged a Tavistock representative who was a board member of AACo told Mr Lewis about material losses suffered when cattle drowned in floods in Queensland in 2019, before that information was made public. The director’s name was not disclosed.

Mr Lewis was then alleged to have used that information to tell his personal plane pilot to sell his stock and “trade as soon as possible”, although the pilot was ultimately unable to execute his over-the-counter trade in time.

AACo’s announcement comes ahead of its annual meeting in Queensland’s Ekka showgrounds on Thursday.

Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholders Services, proxy advisors