Reported by Eileen Kinsella

Joe Lewis—billionaire art collector, currency trader, and owner of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club—was charged with insider trading and financial fraud in New York today.

According to the U.S. attorney statement and the indictment, Lewis received non-public information, such as, for example, imminent positive test results for biochemical companies as a result of his involvement with the boards of certain companies. Lewis allegedly misused and misappropriated the information to provide stock tips to individuals he knew and employed on multiple occasions. In one case he passed on information to two pilots he employed: Patrick O’Connor and Bryan Waugh. The two men were also named in the indictment.

In one instance, Lewis gave each man loans worth $500,000 so they could buy a company’s stock before the public release of favorable clinical results. Lewis’ lawyer did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Lewis has been a major player in the art market for decades. In 2015, he was revealed as the buyer of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Gertrud Loew-Felsövanyi (1902) sold at Sotheby’s London in June of that year for $39 million. An investigation conducted by the Austrian daily Der Standard revealed the acquisition.

Read full report: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/billionaire-art-collector-joe-lewis-indicted-in-new-york-for-insider-trading-and-financial-fraud-2342056/amp-page

Read U.S. DOJ press release: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/british-investor-and-billionaire-businessman-joseph-lewis-charged-insider-trading-and

Read U.S. DOJ indictments: https://www.justice.gov/media/1307596/dl?inline and https://www.justice.gov/media/1307591/dl?inline