Tottenham's billionaire owner, Joe Lewis, has been indicted for "brazen" insider trading by the US attorney.

Damian Williams, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, alleged on Tuesday that Lewis had shared information about companies including Australian Agricultural Co., Mirati Therapeutics and Solid Biosciences with friends.

Lewis has been levelled with a 19-count indictment, relating to 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy.

"Today I'm announcing that my office, the southern district of New York has indicted Joe Lewis, the British billionaire, for orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme," Williams said in a statement.

"We allege that for years Joe Lewis abused access to corporate board rooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his pilots and his friends.

"Those folks then traded on that inside information and made millions of dollars on the stock market. Thanks to Lewis those bets were a sure thing.

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"None of this was necessary. Joe Lewis is a wealthy man, but as we allege he used insider information to compensate his employees, or to shower gifts on his friends and lovers.

"That's classic corporate corruption. It's cheating and it's against the law."

Lewis' lawyer, David Zornow, staunchly defended the 86-year-old, saying an "egregious error of judgment" had been made and that Lewis was a "man impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment".

A Tottenham club spokesperson added: "This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment."

The case against Lewis will not impact the direct running of Tottenham, with the day-to-day running of the club long left to chairman Daniel Levy. He bought a controlling stake in Spurs from prominent businessman Alan Sugar in 2001, worth £22m, but very rarely attends games in north London.

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This article was originally published on 90min as Tottenham's owner indicted in United States for 'brazen' insider trading.