BREAKING: Tottenham owner Joe Lewis indicted in SDNY for insider trading

Breaking news today from the United States — Tottenham Hotspur’s billionaire owner Joe Lewis, a British native but tax exile in the United Kingdom, has been indicted by United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams for the crime of insider trading.

According to Bloomberg News ($) which has a writeup on the indictment, Lewis is charged with providing inside information from companies in which he has invested “as a way to compensate his employees or shower gifts on his friends and lovers.” Bloomberg cites prosecutors that allege he had been providing this information for more than eight years; the list of companies include Solid Biosciences, Australian Agricultural Co. and Mirati Therapeutics, all of which were connected to the Tavistock Group, a Lewis-owned investment company. Lewis is also alleged to have loaned money to the people whom he tipped off.

This is breaking news and we have no further information at this time. Lewis, who is based in the Bahamas, is the majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club; there are currently no indications that the club or anyone affiliated with it, including chairman Daniel Levy, were involved in any misconduct, but it does bring up the possibility that the club might suddenly be very much on the market for a sale.

More information will be posted as we know it.

UPDATE (8:37 p.m. ET): After this story was published, a statement was issued from David M. Zornow, of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, counsel to Joseph Lewis:

“The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr. Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment. Mr. Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.”