Former Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis is to receive an official pardon from US President Donald Trump, but will not be making a return to the club.
Lewis was fined £4m last year after pleading guilty to insider trading, having handed ownership of Tottenham to the Lewis Family Trust in 2022.
The Lewis family this year took full operational control of Tottenham, following the departure of former chairman Daniel Levy, but 88-year-old Joe will remain in retirement.
Tottenham will continue to be run by the next generation of the Lewis family – Joe’s daughter Vivienne, his son Charles and Nick Beucher, the husband of Vivienne’s daughter – along with non-executive chairman Peter Charrington and chief executive Vinai Venkatesham. Eric Hinson last month joined the club’s board as a non-executive director.
Lewis’s pardon is due to be published by the White House later on Thursday and the British billionaire said: “I am pleased all of this is now behind me, and I can enjoy retirement and watch as my family and extended family continue to build our businesses based on the quality and pursuit of excellence that has become our trademark.”
A source close to the Lewis family added: “Joe and the Lewis family are extremely grateful for this pardon and would like to thank President Trump for taking this action. Over his long business career, Joe has been a visionary, creating businesses across the world which multiple generations of his family are now taking forward. There is so much more to the Joe Lewis story than this one event.”
Vivienne has been a regular at games since Levy’s departure and the Lewis family last month confirmed the injection of £100m into Tottenham, as first revealed by Telegraph Sport. The family have vowed to prioritise sustained sporting success, with the club fifth in the Premier League table and 10th in the Champions League.
Lewis, who was born in London’s East End, was ranked 39th in the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated worth of around £5bn. Before his sentencing in April last year, Lewis said that he learnt as he grew up in England during World War II how “precious life is” and had devoted himself to finding a cure for “horrendous diseases”.
Trump has issued a number of pardons since returning to the White House, some of which have provoked controversy and criticism.
