Who is Joe Lewis? British billionaire charged in US for insider trading; here's what we know

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British billionaire Joe Lewis has been criminally charged in New York with orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme and has surrendered to US authorities in Manhattan, according to a report by news agency Reuters. The billionaire is expected to appear in court to face the insider trading charges, said a spokesperson for the US Attorney's office in Manhattan. Lewis, whose family trust controls a majority of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer team, passed tips about companies in which he invested to friends, personal assistants, private pilots and romantic partners, enabling them to reap millions of dollars of profit, according to Prosecuters.

Lewis, who founded the investment firm Tavistock Group, was charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, for alleged crimes spanning from 2013 to 2021. He is worth $6.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He controlled board of director seats at several companies and deputized employees to serve on boards, which gave him access to inside information, according to prosecutors.

"The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr. Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment," Lewis' lawyer David Zornow said in an emailed statement. "Mr.

Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court," Zornow said. Insider trading has long been a focus of Williams' office, dating to 2009 when a crackdown began under one of his predecessors, Preet Bharara, according to Reuters. Prosecutors said Lewis exploited his access to corporate boardrooms from 2019 to 2021 by passing material nonpublic information about companies such as Mirati Therapeutics,