26 July 2023 , 21:00
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He is the owner of one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs, with his handprint on everything from hotels and restaurants to music, banking and biotech.
But you’re unlikely to have seen Joe Lewis cheering on Harry Kane and co at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – and much less likely to have ever heard him talk about his business or personal life.
The reclusive 86-year-old billionaire, who is one of Britain’s richest men, prefers to stay away from the limelight, living most of the year on board his £112million super-yacht in the Bahamas – complete with a tennis court and his £1billion art collection.
And when he does come onshore, he hides away behind the perimeter fences of his luxury Isleworth golf resort –where Tiger Woods has a home – or at his sprawling mansion beside the Hidden Lake in the remote mountains of Patagonia, Argentina.
Now, though, the secretive tycoon has found himself in the middle of a storm he won’t be able to shy away from.
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Joe moved to the Bahamas as tax exile (Getty Images/500px Plus)Lewis, believed to be worth £4.7billion, turned himself in after US prosecutors indicted him over a “brazen” insider trading scheme.
He is accused of tipping off employees, associates, friends and a girlfriend with confidential information about companies he was involved with, and lending some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars to trade on the knowledge.
He is charged with 19 counts, including fraud and conspiracy, each of which carry lengthy sentences.
That would be a dramatic fall from grace for a man who has achieved so much, from so little. Lewis’s life started from humble beginnings in 1937, born to Jewish parents above the Roman Arms pub in Bow, East London –a genuine Cockney.
His superyacht Aviva (FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)He left school at 15 to work in his family’s cafe as a waiter, earning £6 a week. He took over and rapidly expanded the business into a series of themed restaurants aimed at American tourists. One colleague described him as a “natural schmoozer”.
Soon, he owned clubs such as The Talk of the Town in Leicester Square, and West End club the Hanover Grand, where he granted The Nolans their first ever live show.
Lewis also delved into the world of tourist shops, selling souvenirs and laying on bus tours of London for foreigners before dropping them off at his restaurants. He sold the family business in 1979 for a massive £30million before venturing into currency trading during the 80s and 90s, and moving to the Bahamas as a tax exile.
It was here that he managed to massively multiply his wealth, expanding his investment into 170 firms in industries from property to finance through his holding company, Tavistock group, and rising to become the 368th richest man in the world.
Joe benefited from currency crash in 1992 (PA)
The Talk of the Town (Mirrorpix)Lewis’s most lucrative day came in September 1992, when he made a shrewd bet that the “overvalued” pound would collapse.
He was right, and as Sterling crashed out of the European Exchange Mechanism on Black Wednesday, he became a billionaire overnight.
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Later repeating the trick when he bet against the Mexican peso, he earned he nickname ‘The Boxer’ – a reference both to his power in the investment ring and his legendary near-namesake, Joe Louis.
There were defeats too, though, including when he lost $1bn – a third of his fortune at the time – in a day when the American bank Bear Stearns collapsed at the start of the 2008 financial crisis.
Joe gave The Nolans their first ever live show (Daily Record)One former associate described Lewis, who famously has screens with stock market data in every room, as a “gambler” who is obsessed with getting richer.
“If you want to play a round of golf with him, he would only do it if you play for money,” he said.
“If he loses, he will be very grumpy, very grumpy, and he will want to continue playing.”
Another described him as “very focused – he is driven by financial gain. He doesn’t like to have many employees. He likes to make decisions based on one or two phone calls.”
Spurs star Harry Kane (PA)Lewis’ incredible wealth means a life of unimaginable extravagance – and the ability to live entirely in his own private world. His yacht, the Aviva II, is one of the most luxurious in the world, boasting a full-size padel tennis court, beach club and spa.
Lewis, who bought out Lord Alan Sugar ’s shares in Tottenham to become the club’s majority stakeholder in 2001, at which point Daniel Levy took over as executive chairman.
Michael Dawson, Spurs captain at the time, visited Lewis’s yacht in the Bahamas. He remembered: “He’s just a normal guy. You could chat to him about anything. He tunes into all the games. He would remember every game, every little thing.”
Lewis, who is married to his long-term secretary Jane, and has two children by his first wife, Esther Browne, has also attracted attention in Argentina, where he bought 11,000 hectares of land surrounding the Lago Escondido lake to build a mansion.
Every year for the last seven years, activists have marched along Lewis’s private road to demand access to the lake. In February, they claimed they were chased and attacked by the businessman’s private security guards.
It was the biggest furore he’d been involved in. Now, the prying eyes of Argentinian ramblers must seem like the least of his worries.
- Joe Lewis, who denies the charges, pleaded not guilty in a US court on Wednesday.