Tottenham owner Lewis surrenders to face charges in insider trading case

British billionaire Joe Lewis, the owner of Tottenham Hotspur soccer club, turned himself in to authorities to face charges in the highest profile US insider trading case this year. The 86-year-old surrendered to federal authorities in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office said. 

The Tavistock Group founder is accused of abusing his access to corporate boardrooms to pass on inside information to his friends, staff on board his superyacht, personal pilots and romantic interests. His private jet pilots, Patrick O’Connor, 66, and Bryan ‘Marty’ Waugh, 64, have also been charged criminally, prosecutors said in a statement. Lewis faces more than a dozen counts of securities fraud for alleged “brazen” conduct that spanned about eight years. He is expected to appear in court in New York later in the day. Lewis, who has a net worth of $6.6 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is the latest figure to be swept up in an insider-trading crackdown led by federal prosecutors in Manhattan