Tottenham owner Joe Lewis will NOT face action from Premier League
Tottenham owner Joe Lewis will NOT face action from Premier League as he surrenders to authorities in Manhattan
- Tottenham owner Joe Lewis has been charged with insider trading in America
- But Lewis is no longer a person of significant control at the London outfit
- Lewis, 86, will appear in court today after surrendering himself to US authorities
The Premier League are not planning to take action against Tottenham after Joe Lewis was sensationally charged with insider trading by a US district attorney last night as the reclusive billionaire does not technically own the club.
A conviction for corruption would put Lewis in breach of the Premier League’s owners and directors test, but the 86-year-old is no longer a person of significant control at Tottenham after he transferred his shares to members of the Lewis Family Trust last year.
As such, the top flight’s hands are tied and there is no action that they could take. The prospect of retrospective moves, in the event of a guilty verdict in the US, is also unlikely.
The British billionaire will appear in court today after surrendering himself to US authorities in Manhattan.
In an update issued by Companies House on 5 October Tottenham revealed that two little known Bahamas-based lawyers, Bryan Antoine Glinton and Katie Louise Booth, had been appointed as ‘persons with significant control’ of the club.
The Premier League are not planning to take action against Tottenham after Joe Lewis was charged with insider trading by a US district attorney
Lewis (left) transferred his shares to members of the Lewis Family Trust last year and no longer holds a position of significant control at the club
Miami-born Glinton is a 55-year-old lawyer specialising in corporate law who has acted as a legal advisor to Lewis’ Tavistock group for several years, while 54-year-old Brit Booth is an asset manager also based in the Bahamas.
Lewis’ ENIC Group injected over £150million into Tottenham by issuing new shares last summer and his decision to hand over his personal shareholding just four months later suggests he was aware of the New York Department of Justice’s investigation for some time and was seeking to protect the club.
In a complex ownership structure Tottenham are 87 per cent owned by ENIC, of which 30 per cent of those shares belong to chairman Daniel Levy, with the remaining 70 per cent owned by members of the Lewis Family Trust.
In a statement issued last December a Tottenham spokesperson confirmed: ‘Tottenham Hotspur Limited (the ‘Company’) has filed changes to its register of persons with significant control (PSCs) following a reorganisation of the Lewis Family Trusts.
‘The new PSCs of the Company are the officers of the family’s discretionary trust.’
Lewis has been charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy for alleged crimes spanning from 2013 to 2021 in what prosecutors described as ‘a classic case of corporate corruption,’ but his lawyer David Zornow said the US government had ‘made an egregious error in judgment’ in charging him.
Tottenham responded with a statement describing the charges as a ‘legal matter unconnected with the club.’ The Premier League declined to comment.
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