Joe Lewis and the Tottenham drama starring Daniel Levy, Ange Postecoglou and Harry Kane

[mawspurs]

The drama that is Tottenham Hotspur rarely ends an episode without a late twist that leaves the shocked audience trying to figure out what could possibly happen next. The latest series - we'll call it 2023 - is only just over halfway through its run but has already showcased drama aplenty.

Source: Football London

 

[aliyid]

Interesting angle on the Joe Lewis stuff

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Spoiler: Article

Joe Lewis and the Tottenham drama starring Daniel Levy, Ange Postecoglou and Harry Kane​

The drama, twists and turns never seem to cease at Tottenham Hotspur with yet more news breaking overnight about the club's owner​

Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis and chairman Daniel Levy have plenty on their plate
The drama that is Tottenham Hotspur rarely ends an episode without a late twist that leaves the shocked audience trying to figure out what could possibly happen next.

The latest series - we'll call it 2023 - is only just over halfway through its run but has already showcased drama aplenty.

This year's episodes have brought four head coaches, fan protests, Italian rage, a banned managing director of football, a spurned Argentine, a shirt-bearing German, a straight-talking Australian without the centre-backs he asked for, a chief football officer blocked from starting his job, a captain asking to leave and the club's biggest star faced with an uncertain future amid a backdrop of Bavarian noise.

All good dramas eventually take the show on the road for episodes abroad and so Tottenham headed off to Australia and Asia for a change of location. Only the club's latest pre-season tour has brought with it just as many twists and turns as were found at home.

There has been the bizarre Harry Kane Bayern shirt stunt, a rained-off match in monsoon-season Thailand - the first time Spurs have ever had a pre-season game cancelled ahead of kick-off in their history - and now they are set to take on a drafted-in local Singaporean side rather than, of all people, Jose Mourinho's Roma after the Italian club pulled out over financial issues with a promoter from an earlier part of their own planned Asian tour.

Ange Postecoglou has already learned that to manage at Tottenham you need to have at least some experience as a firefighter for all of the blazes that suddenly ignite without warning within the club. Even in his final training session in Singapore on Tuesday night, one of his young back-up goalkeepers, Alfie Whiteman, had to be taken off on a stretcher in visible pain with what looked like a serious ankle injury.

A documentary crew have been following the Premier League club around during this tour and it's a wonder filmmakers don't constantly stalk the north London club's every move, such is the chaos and mayhem that exists in and around Spurs most years.

Yet the biggest twist of all was saved for the latest episode of the Tottenham Hotspur soap opera.

While everyone slept in Singapore so US attorney Damian Williams released a video statement on his continent about Spurs' 86-year-old owner Joe Lewis

"Today I am announcing that my office, the southern district of New York, has indicted Joe Lewis, the British billionaire for orchestrating a a brazen insider trading scheme," he said. "We allege that for years Joe Lewis abused his access to corporate boardrooms and repeatedly provided inside information to his romantic partners, his personal assistants, his private pilots and his friends.

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

He added: "Now, none of this was necessary. Joe Lewis is a wealthy man. But as we allege he used inside information as a way 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. Laws that apply to everyone, no matter who you are. That’s why Joe Lewis has been indicted and will face justice here in the Southern District of New York.”

The video has already had more than one million views on X - the social media platform formerly called Twitter. Lewis is the latest figure to be included in an insider trading crackdown led by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and he is their most high profile this year.

The Financial Times reported that Lewis has been charged with 19 counts, including securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and make false statements within what Williams had called the "brazen insider trading scheme" between 2013 and 2021.

For those who are not aware of who Lewis is and his connection to Tottenham Hotspur, the 86-year-old is estimated by Forbes to be worth $6.1 billion (£4.7 billion) - a fortune that has grown by nearly $2 billion (£1.5 billion) since 2020. They list him as the 425th richest man in the world.

The notoriously publicity-shy Lewis, who was born above an East End pub, owns Tavistock Group, which has more than 200 assets across 15 countries, and one of that company's assets is the investment firm ENIC - the English National Investment Company - which in turns owns the majority stake in Tottenham Hotspur.

Lewis built his fortune in trading and investment and owns vast swathes of land in places like Orlando and Argentina. He also owns an art collection that is said to be worth more than a billion pounds, including work from Picasso, Matisse and Freud.

ENIC bought Spurs from Alan Sugar in December 2000 and with chairman Daniel Levy the public face of the company - although almost as publicity shy as his mentor - Lewis stepped into the background, having little to no input into football decisions.

The only mention of Lewis on Spurs' website for years came in the shareholder information, which stated: "Of the total issued share capital of Tottenham Hotspur Limited, ENIC International Limited own 85.55%. Mr D Levy and certain members of his family are potential beneficiaries of a discretionary trust which ultimately owns 29.4% of the share capital of ENIC International Limited. Mr J Lewis has an interest of 70.6% of ENIC International Limited."

That changed in October last year when documents filed by the club with Companies House showed that Lewis was to no longer be shown as a 'person with significant control'. Instead two officers of the Lewis Family Trust were appointed in his place.

The first was Bryan Antoine Glinton, a Miami-born lawyer who was given an address in the Bahamas on the forms. He specialises in corporate law and estate planning and is a legal advisor to the Tavistock Group.

The second officer named was British-born solicitor Katie Louise Booth, also with an address given in the Bahamas. Booth was described in a magazine article in Gateway - The Bahama's Financial Review as having "managed the consolidation, preservation and succession of some of the world's wealthiest entrepreneurs".

That notice to Companies House signified both officers as having "the right to exercise significant influence or control over the activities of a trust, and the trustees of that trust, hold, directly or indirectly, more than 50% but less than 75% of the shares in the company".

When asked about the changes at the time by football.london, a club spokesman said: "Tottenham Hotspur Limited has filed changes to its register of persons with significant control (PSCs) following a reorganisation of the Lewis Family Trusts. The new PSCs of the Company are the officers of the family’s discretionary trust."

It was made clear then that the move, simply a family trust restructure, did not change anything for Spurs on a day to day level as they had and continued to be owned by Lewis and the family trust and run by Levy.

Time will tell as to exactly what effect the charges against Lewis will have on Spurs, if any.

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

David M. Zornow, who is counsel to Lewis, said in a statement released to the US media: "The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment. Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court."

Spurs have been linked with investment talks with organisations across the world this year, most recently with Liberty Media, who own the Formula One Group.

Whether the Lewis situation has any impact at all on potential investment or even one day a sale will be seen down the line for a club which Forbes valued at an estimated $2.8 billion (£2.2 billion) this year.

For now Levy must focus on the present and the Harry Kane situation as well as Postecoglou's needs in the transfer window.

Despite the tour problems, Spurs are not expected to lose money from the cancelled match in Thailand, the promotors instead having to lean on any insurance they would have taken out for the game.

Postecoglou however lost vital match time for his players and described the cancellation as "not ideal" on Tuesday.

Levy has been at each of the host countries on Spurs' tour, occasionally flanked in Australia and Asia by his incoming chief football officer and number two Scott Munn.

Munn was meant to start at Tottenham on July 1 but a hold-up with his current employers The City Group means there is still no set date for his official first day of work. With family in both Australia and China, he is believed to have taken this opportunity to meet up with Levy and the club abroad ahead of his official start date.

For Levy, centre-backs and Kane will be his most pressing ports of call amid the noise of the charges against his mentor and long-time boss Lewis.

Bayern are expected to enter a new bid for Kane in the coming days and with the new season approaching and Postecoglou keen for a resolution before it begins to affect the striker and the team's preparations, the Spurs chairman will have to make his final decision over whether it is time to stick or twist.

Kane, who football.london reported last week is set to announce a huge new boot deal after his Nike contract ended, has been a consummate professional behind the scenes at Spurs and on the training pitches with Postecoglou as he awaits news over whether he has to make a decision on his next step.

On Tuesday, in between double training sessions - the morning one at Lion City Sailors' training ground and evening one at the national stadium - Kane went to the Children’s Wishing Well charity in Singapore with other Spurs players including Eric Dier.

The England captain laughed and painted with the giggling children, a world away from concerns about his future. He was friendly and polite with those media in attendance albeit keeping an understandable distance to avoid any small talk that might turn in an awkward direction.

For as Son Heung-min said this week, even Kane likely does not know what will happen next. For all of Bayern's barking from Germany they must make a bid that is worthy of one of the world's best strikers. Only they can give both Levy and then Kane a decision to make.

In front of that all is Postecoglou, who remains a disarmingly funny presence despite his gruff exterior.

Following the shirt stunt in his previous press conference in Bangkok, the Australian began the next one in Singapore by declaring before a question had been asked: "Can we get any show and tell out of the way nice and early?"

For a man who has entered the eye of the Spurs storm and is trying to make sense of it all and piece together a way forward, he has retained his sense of humour.

When football.london asked him whether he was growing frustrated at the lack of a new centre-back when it was a priority position he had identified early on in the process, he wore a rueful smile.

"No, it's just the football world, mate. I've been in it a long time," he said. "I wish it could be like my wife with Amazon where we get deliveries everyday mate, but I can't put one in and get it the next day, unfortunately.

"It's just the way of the football world so no frustration, just keep working hard to try and get it done."

In the new head coach, Spurs at least have a lead character who seems unfazed by the chaos around him.

That will be needed because the Tottenham Hotspur soap opera continues to twist and turn and for Postecoglou, Kane, Levy and now Lewis it feels like there's more drama to come.

 

[Bilko]

It's sell time Enic. Joe Lewis is nearly 90!
Postecoglau goes up and up in my estimations

 

[purple8]

It's sell time Enic. Joe Lewis is nearly 90!
Postecoglau goes up and up in my estimations

Joe has already stepped away from ENIC. ENIC like other big companies will go on past this and any future death.

 

[Dennism]

So sick of Spurs getting dragged through the mud. I just hope somehow we get new owners and that the Harry Kane issue is resolved. For somebody who supposedly loves the club he generates a lot of trouble and grief.

 

[Bilko]

Joe has already stepped away from ENIC. ENIC like other big companies will go on past this and any future death.

Yeh-realise that, just wanted to mention his age really-these type of guys, like Murdoch and Co, seem to last forever

 

[Springerding]

If Joe gets his defence sorted as fast as Levy has sorted ours he will be in real bother.

 

[WorcesterTHFC]

So sick of Spurs getting dragged through the mud. I just hope somehow we get new owners and that the Harry Kane issue is resolved. For somebody who supposedly loves the club he generates a lot of trouble and grief.

The fact is that Lewis and Levy don't love the club at all. Their interests are purely business ones, not football ones.

 

[Japhet]

The fact is that Lewis and Levy don't love the club at all. Their interests are purely business ones, not football ones.

I think Levy loves the club. He just loves money more.

 

[ginola007]

I think Levy loves the club. He just loves money more.

Levy spares no expense in constructing a world class, multi-purpose stadium that attracts A-list entertainers, NFL, heavy-weight title boxing mataches, and is still trying to improve the stadium. He is also preparing to gentrify N17 and surrounding areas, yet is reluctant to spend money on a defense that had leaked 63 goals last season.
Does that tell us something?
I believe most fans, at this point, wouldn't mind seating on a toilet seat if it means winning a trophy, And yet . . .

 

[Gassin's finest]