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Businessyness Billionaire businessman Joe Lewis, whose family trust owns Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, received a pardon from President Donald Trump.
Lewis, 88, pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of a deal with prosecutors in 2024 that would have seen him avoid prison.
He is accused of passing information about his companies to his private pilots, friends, personal assistants and romantic partners in a scam that authorities say bilked authorities out of dollars.
A House official said that Trump approved the pardon for Lewis, who requested that he receive medical treatment and visit his grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the US.
“Mr. Lewis admitted that he made a terrible mistake, did not fight extradition in the case, and paid a $ 5 million fine,” the official told the BBC.
In a statement, Lewis said: “I’m happy with it all now, and I can enjoy retirement and keep the quality and pursuit of excellence that has become a trademark.”
Confirming the pardon to the BBC, a source close to the Lewis family said they were “very grateful” for the pardon, and thanked Trump.
Lewis founded the Investment Fird Tavistock Group, which has stakes in the ownership of many properties, sports, finance, energy science and energy and life and life and life science.
He is ranked 39th in the 2023 Time on Sunday list, with an estimated worth of over £5bn ($.4bn).
He was arrested in July 2023 and charged with sixteen counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.
Prosecutors said that between 2013 and 2021, he abused his access to corporate board rooms and passed insider information to his contacts.
US Attorney Damian Williams explained that those contacts made millions of dollars in “sure bets on the stock market.
At one point, according to an indictment, Lewis told a girlfriend to invest in a Biotech company in July 2019, before the results of a clinical trial of the company were publicly traded.
He said he then logged into his bank account and used $700,000 to invest in the company, eventually making a profit of $849,000.
In 2024, Lewis pleaded guilty to conspiracy and two counts of securities fraud as part of prosecutors. He was later fined $5m and sentenced to three years probation.
Lewis is best known for his ownership of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, which he bought a controlling stake for $32m.
In 2022, control was handed over to a family trust, and financial documents filed at the UK company’s house did not have “meaningful control” of the club.
