The image of Joe Lewis exiting a New York courtroom with a companion sporting a baseball cap bearing the Spurs logo was probably uncomfortable to Tottenham’s PR department.
Tottenham has made a concerted effort to put their past behind them. The owner, who pleaded guilty to three counts of insider trading yesterday, apologized to a Manhattan judge.
In a deal with the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, Lewis, 86, acknowledged to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two charges of securities fraud.
He was slammed with a 19-count indictment in July — 16 of securities fraud and three of conspiracy — for alleged crimes spanning 2013 to 2021.
Lewis told the Court yesterday, “I am so embarrassed and I apologise to the court for my conduct.”
According to his attorney David Zornow, Lewis retains the ability to appeal as part of his plea agreement even if he receives a prison sentence.
Spurs are uneasy about the controversy, which damages the character of Lewis, the East End lad who grew up to become one of the richest men in Britain.
Lewis’s tight affiliation with the club should go unnoticed, even though he is no longer legally associated with it.
Since his old business, ENIC, purchased Sir Alan Sugar’s 29.9% ownership for £22 million in 2000, he has been associated with Spurs.
The millionaire from the Bahamas owned Tottenham for more than 20 years, even though he hardly ever spoke in public about the team or attended games (usually once a season and only on important events like the Champions League Final or the first game at the new stadium).
ENIC owns 86.58 percent of Spurs, which is controlled by the Lewis Family Trust, which is owned by Daniel Levy, the club chairman, and some of his family members for the remaining 29.88 percent of the investment company. In October 2022, Lewis “ceased to be a person with significant control” of the Trust, although it still bears his name, and he is not a beneficiary of it. Therefore, on the surface, Tottenham is unaffected in any way by Lewis’s admission of guilt and his upcoming court appearance on March 28. Spurs declined to comment yesterday, but in July described the situation as a “legal matter unconnected with the club.”
For the most portion of his career, Levy has maintained a tight professional and personal relationship with Lewis, so his fall from grace is probably going to cause him some discomfort.
When he was associated with Spurs, Lewis seldom became engaged in football or business matters, preferring to leave the day-to-day management of the team to Levy, who was 25 years his junior and seen as his protégé.
Despite this, many Spurs supporters jokingly referred to the millionaire as “Uncle Joe” and thought he was the silent force behind the throne, with rumors that he had guided Levy in one direction or another.
Levy essentially placed Spurs up for sale in September when he finally acknowledged in a Bloomberg interview that he was willing to sell a portion of the team or more. He insisted that he had no intention of leaving, but he acknowledged that he had “a duty to consider anything that anyone may want to propose.”
There will undoubtedly be more rumors about a sale in the near future, but it’s still unclear how the Lewis incident might affect things.
The Lewis Family Trust would still need to be managed by Levy or the two trustees chosen in 2022, and it is impossible to predict how much sway Lewis would have over the family members who will be crucial in determining Spurs’ future.
Lewis is estimated to be worth £5 billion, therefore any court fine is unlikely to be so high as to make his family balance the books.
Is now a good moment to force a sale, though, given that owning a Premier League club may bring unwanted attention?
The bottom line is that Lewis’s decision to leave Spurs 16 months ago was well-timed for the team, ensuring that the fallout from yesterday’s courtroom drama should not be felt at Hotspur Way as manager Ange Postecoglou and his team get ready for tomorrow’s FA Cup fourth-round match against Manchester City. Sources close to Lewis have insisted that his decision had nothing to do with the threat of legal action and was in line with the behavior of someone his age.
However, it’s still unclear in the backdrop if Lewis’s guilty pleas would have an impact on the deeply private thoughts of Levy or the future of the club that he and his former partner have changed.
