British billionaire Joe Lewis, who owns the majority of the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, could be forced to sell his stake after being embroiled in a massive insider trading scandal.
The 86-year-old businessman surrendered to United States authorities in New York after being hit with multiple counts of insider trading, tipping off employees, associates, and friends with non-public information to trade with the classified knowledge.
British investment company ENIC International Limited, which owns about 86 percent of the Premier League club, is 70 percent owned by Lewis, while club chairman Daniel Levy owns the remaining 30 percent.
ENIC first bought a 29.9 percent share of the club in 1991. The subsequent increase in investment in the following years turned the share into a controlling stake in 2001. Lewis has a net worth of $6.1 billion.
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Sale of the club on the horizon
The team has been rumored to be up for sale for months, and the charges against Lewis could expedite a deal with prospective buyers.
The club is valued at $2.8 billion, making it the ninth-most valuable football team in the world. Their newly-built Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in 2019, played a big role in increasing the club's value. The sporting venue itself is already worth $1.3 billion.
Chelsea was sold in 2022 to a group of investors led by American businessman Todd Boehly for $5.4 billion, following sanctions imposed on the previous club owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich after Russia invaded Ukraine.
A sale of Tottenham could fetch a similar number since they both play in London - one of the biggest markets of the sport.
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