Tottenham owner Lewis avoids prison, fined $5M for insider trading

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Billionaire Tottenham Hotspur mogul Joe Lewis has averted jail in an insider buying and selling case, with a New York choose on Thursday as a substitute giving him three years’ probation and a $5 million advantageous.

Decide Jessica Clarke additionally imposed sweeping restrictions on his firm Broadbay, calling his offending “undoubtedly critical” however sparing the 87-year-old businessman from time behind bars.

“I am right here in the present day as a result of I made a horrible mistake. I am ashamed, I am sorry,” Lewis mentioned in a hushed voice earlier than sentencing, following his responsible plea for supplying insider market info to acquaintances.

Lewis lower a frail determine within the courtroom, wearing a gray go well with with an eyepatch on his left eye.

He was flanked by two legal professionals who argued that he ought to be spared imprisonment due to his failing well being and impending eye surgical procedure.

Lewis pleaded for leniency, describing his upbringing on the peak of WWII, and promising to make amends “with the time I’ve left.”

Lewis furnished workers, together with his non-public pilots, and lovers with insider info for years in a “brazen” scheme between 2013 and 2021 that raked in thousands and thousands of {dollars}.

Inventory ideas offered by Lewis included confidential details about upcoming favorable take a look at outcomes for biochemical firms, the Manhattan courtroom heard.