Football Finance expert Kieran Maguire has said that Tottenham Hotspur might not be completely in the clear yet when it comes to the recent charges against Joe Lewis.
Last week, Lewis was charged with multiple counts of insider trading by American authorities, with the Bahamas-based Billionaire indicted for passing information to “romantic partners and his private pilots,” according to the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams (The Athletic).
Joe Lewis (right) (Photo by Gary W. Green/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
It has since been reported that the development is not expected to affect Spurs since Lewis is no longer in control of the club, having transferred control to Lewis Family Trusts last year (Telegraph).
The Premier League are allegedly satisfied that Lewis is not part of the ownership of Tottenham and that he has nothing to do with the running of the club any longer.
Lewis could still cause problems for Tottenham
However, while Maguire reiterates that Spurs are not in trouble at the moment, he warns that the authorities could still arrive at the conclusion that the 86-year-old has shadow control of the club, which could, in turn, create many problems for Tottenham Hotspur.
Maguire told Football Insider: “The main issue with the Joe Lewis insider trading story is that Spurs, on the face of it, won’t have a problem.
“This is because Joe Lewis effectively transferred his shares to a trust. However, if the authorities see this as a way of trying to distance himself from the club but he does have effective control, then it could open a can of worms.
“We will have to wait and see what the American authorities do and how his allegations progress, but he is innocent until proven otherwise. If it is deemed that he has shadow control over the club, it could make things very difficult.”
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It is quite possible that Lewis and his legal team would have been fully aware that these charges were on their way, which might have been why the 86-year-old gave up control of Spurs and his other assets to the family trusts a year ago.
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