Joe Lewis, a British billionaire and owner of a Premiership football team, was indicted in New York on charges of insider trading. For years, say prosecutors, Lewis ran a "brazen insider trading scheme," encouraging stock trades with "romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots, and his friends" which made millions of dollars.
In one instance, the Southern District's indictment, first obtained by Bloomberg, alleges that Lewis loaned his pilots each $500,000 so they could trade a biotech company's stock before a public announcement was made about the results of a clinical trial. On other occasions, Lewis allegedly pressed his personal assistants and romantic partners to trade on the information he provided as soon as possible.
It's funny how it's never enough, how blithely corrupt and corruptible they are. Billionaires often act like lottery winners, but pushing insider trades on cronies and pals as if they were horse racing tips is on another level entirely.
