The multimillion-dollar duel of the ranch Hidden Lake and the English club Tottenham Hotspur, Joe Lewis, avoided going to jail after being convicted of providing inside information to his acquaintances to earn millions of dollars. Jessica Clarke, the New York judge, imposed this Thursday three years of probation and a $5 million fine.
“I’m here today because I made a terrible mistake. I’m ashamed, I’m sorry,” Lewis said softly before the sentencing, following his guilty plea. Additionally, Clarke imposed sweeping restrictions on his company Broadbay, calling the crime “undoubtedly serious” but sparing the 87-year-old businessman from spending time behind bars.
During his entrance to the courthouse and during the process that found him guilty, Lewis looked frail. There he looked downcast, dressed in a gray suit and with an eyepatch over his left eye. He was accompanied by two lawyers who They argued that he should not be imprisoned due to his poor health and his impending eye surgery.
Lewis hiding from the press
The billionaire asked for mercy, spoke about his upbringing in the middle of World War II and promised to use the time he has left to correct his mistake, according to reports. AFP.
According to the indictment against him, he provided employees, including his private pilots and lovers, with inside information for years in a “brazen” scheme between 2013 and 2021 that raked in millions of dollars. Lewis’ stock tips included confidential information about upcoming favorable test results for biochemical companies, as exposed in the Manhattan court.
The origins of the cause
The court heard that in 2019 Lewis loaned his two pilots $500,000 each so they could buy shares in Mirati Therapeutics, before the public publication of the clinical results. One of the pilots sent a message to a friend to buy said assets, telling him that he thought “the Boss has inside information.”
Lewis is reportedly one of the richest men in Britain, with a fortune that Forbes estimates at 6.2 billion dollarsbuilding his reputation as a currency speculator in the 1980s and early 1990s.
His holding company ENIC bought a majority stake in Tottenham Hotspur in 2001 from its then owner, Alan Sugar, another prominent British tycoon, for $22 million.
Lewis officially relinquished control of the club last year, according to British financial records, and his stake was formally placed into the hands of a family trust. His son and granddaughter, who wrote a letter to the judge asking for clemency, accompanied him to court.
Lewis’ lawyer, David Zornow, told the court that the matter had caused the octogenarian “shame and humiliation” and “demoted before the whole world” to the former titan of industry.
“The measure of a man is the eight decades prior to these unfortunate events”Zornow told a packed courtroom overlooking the Manhattan skyscrapers.
He promised that if Lewis was freed from jail, he would self-deport to his refuge in the Bahamas, from where he has secretly managed his extensive investment empire for years.
Prosecutor Jason Richman said Lewis’ crimes were “offensive to the concept of an open market” but that his failing health posed a unique situation.
Grabois referred to the conviction against Joe Lewis
The social leader and lawyer, who in 2022 traveled to the Lago Escodio ranch located in Río Negro, described Lewis as a “white collar criminal” and recalled his connection with Mauricio Macri.
Joe Lewis pleaded guilty to insider trading in the United States
“We have been saying it for ten years: Macri’s friend, the host of festicholas of judges, police, businessmen and politicians, is a white-collar criminal. Finally, he confessed… It is time to recover Lago Escondido and the appropriated lands that “The pirate occupies the National Security Zone in both Río Negro (Estancia Hidden Lake) and Santa Cruz (Estancia El Cóndor),” he expressed in his X account.
At that time, Grabois traveled to Patagonia in the midst of the scandal for which judges, businessmen and a former Buenos Aires Security Minister met there. In 2023, the case was annulled.
Finally, Grabois closed his post by criticizing the President: “Nothing can be expected from Milei – who did not go to Ushuaia to honor the kids of the Malvinas but did go to lick General Richardson’s boots – but, gentlemen Governors, do not be complicit! “.
AFP/Gi
