Billionaire whose family trust owns Spurs denies insider trading

Tavistock founder Joe Lewis leaves court on Wednesday (Mary Altaffer/AP)

British billionaire Joe Lewis – whose family trust owns Tottenham – has been bailed by a judge in New York after pleading not guilty to charges of giving insider trading tips.

The 86-year-old, who faces 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, appeared at an arraignment hearing at Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday.

After entering a not guilty plea Lewis was released on a bail of 300 million US dollars (£230m), reportedly secured by a yacht and private aircraft equivalent to that amount.

Lewis, and two of his pilots who are also facing charges, must remain in the United States.

Prosecutors say Lewis, who was arrested on Wednesday morning, is alleged to have used his access to confidential information to provide stock tips to individuals close to him, with the indictment referring to one girlfriend having made 849,000 US dollars (£657,000) on one of those tip-offs.

Lewis’ legal counsel David Zornow, from the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom firm, said: “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.”

Each of the first 13 counts of securities fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, Manhattan prosecutors said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced on Tuesday that Lewis had been indicted over a “brazen insider trading scheme”.

Prosecutors said Lewis, by virtue of his investments in certain companies, received