Former Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis has received a pardon from Donald Trump after being fined £3.8million and given three years on probation by a New York judge last year.
The east London-born billionaire, 88, whose family is still in control of Spurs, was spared jail when he admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud in January 2024.
Lewis initially denied all the charges against him, with his lawyers accusing prosecutors of making an ‘egregious’ error, but later changed his plea to guilty after a non-custodial sentence was agreed.
He was accused and ultimately convicted of passing on tips about companies in order to benefit friends, personal assistants, private pilots and romantic partners.
But now Donald Trump has chosen to pardon Lewis for his ‘terrible mistake’, as the Brit dubbed it at the time. The news is expected to be officially announced by The White House later today.
Lewis, who also owns Mitchells & Butlers, said in a statement: ‘I am pleased all of this is now behind me and I can enjoy retirement and watch as my family and extended family continue to build our businesses based on the quality and pursuit of excellence that has become our trademark.’
Former Spurs owner Joe Lewis has today been pardoned by Donald Trump after being convicted of securities fraud last year
The east London-born businessman admitted his involvement in a ‘brazen insider trader scheme’
A source close to the family added: ‘Joe and the Lewis family are extremely grateful for this pardon and would like to thank President Trump for taking this action.
‘Over his long business career, Joe has been a visionary, creating businesses across the world which multiple generations of his family are now taking forward. There is so much more to the Joe Lewis story than this one event.’
Lewis’s crimes were alleged to have been committed between 2013 and 2021 while he was still the owner of Tottenham. It was thought his ‘brazen insider trading scheme’ enabled him and his accomplices to make millions of pounds in profit.
He told a judge in a Manhattan court last year: ‘I am so embarrassed and I apologise to the court for my conduct.
‘While I possessed material non-public information about certain publicly traded companies, I agreed to make recommendations. I knew at the time what I was doing was wrong and I’m so embarrassed.’
Lewis handed over his majority ownership of Spurs to his family in 2022, a year before he was charged.
The club has since been overseen by Lewis’s daughter Vivienne, his son Charles and Vivienne’s son-in-law Nick Beucher.
Lewis has received one of 75 pardons handed out by President Donald Trump this week
The family took full operational control of Spurs earlier this year upon Daniel Levy’s departure.
Lewis, who has been retired since 2022, has received one of 75 pardons handed out by Trump this week.
Among those to have been let off are Rudy Guiliani and Mark Meadows, who were accused of trying to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
