By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON A federal judge on Thursday will consider whether to impose the steepest sentences

Joe Lewis, the British billionaire and long-time majority stakeholder in Tottenham Hotspur, pleaded not guilty in New York on Wednesday to charges of insider trading. The previous day, federal officials said the investor “abused his access to corporate boardrooms” and carried out a series of “brazen” instances of financial misconduct, sharing insider information with friends, employees, and former romantic partners. He’s charged with 16 counts of securities fraud and three counts of conspiracy, Reuters reports. “That’s classic corporate corruption,” US attorney Damian Williams said in a video statement on Tuesday. “It’s cheating, and it’s against the law.” Attorneys for the billionaire said he plans to fight the charges. “The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” David M Zornow said in an email statement to The Independent on Tuesday. “Mr Lewis has come to the US voluntarily to answer these ill-conceived charges, and we will defend him vigorously in court.” In a hearing on Wednesday before US magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo in Manhattan following Mr Lewis’s early-morning arrest by the FBI, new details about the case against the businessman came to light. As part of a $300m bond, Mr Lewis was ordered to surrender his mega-yacht, the Aviva, as well as his private aircraft. He will now be barred from international travel as the case proceeds. Officials also accused two of his pilots, Patrick O’Connor of New York and Bryan Waugh of Virginia, of profiting off illegal tips from Mr Lewis. Both men have pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers declined requests to comment from Reuters. Prosecutors allege Mr Lewis lent the men $500,000 each in 2019, encouraging them to buy stock in an oncology company in which the billionaire had invested. Mr O’Connor allegedly texted a friend “the Boss has inside info”, a seeming reference to a tip that the billionaire allegedly passed on that the company was about to announce promising clinical results. After the company announced the news, the shares the pilots allegedly bought leapt by 16.7 per cent, and prosecutors allege one of the men labeled a payment to Mr Lewis “loan payback” and listed the company’s stock symbol. In an accompanying civil case, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Mr Lewis, the pilots, and the billionaire’s former girlfriend Carolyn Carter of insider trading. Officials allege that in 2019, Mr Lewis told Ms Carter about a biotech company that was about to raise capital and potentially increase its share price, even though he was bound by a confidentiality agreement. She then allegedly bought $701,000 in the company, earning a $172,000 on her investment. The Independent has contacted Ms Carter for comment. “When insiders like Lewis take advantage of their access to such information, it erodes public trust and confidence in the fair and efficient operation of our markets,” SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “That’s why we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to hold accountable those who abuse their positions for personal benefit and the unlawful enrichment of others.” Tottenham Hotspur told The Independent, “This is a legal matter unconnected with the club and as such we have no comment.” Mr Lewis ceased to be a "person with significant control" of the Premier League club last year, following a "reorganisation of the Lewis Family Trusts,” the club said, according to Sky News. He bought a controlling stake in the Premier League club from Lord Alan Sugar in 2001 for £22m. Mr Lewis owns the Tavistock Group, which owns more than 200 assets across 13 countries, including Tottenham Hotspur and UK pub operator Mitchells & Butlers, according to Sky News. The 86-year-old is worth an estimated $6.1bn and lives in the Bahamas, according to Forbes. Read More Who is Joe Lewis? The secretive billionaire Tottenham owner charged with insider trading UK billionaire Joe Lewis, owner of Tottenham soccer team, charged with insider trading in US Football rumours: Tottenham owner tells chairman to sell Harry Kane

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, and his wife have been charged with bribery

Jake Paul recently posted a tweet on his X account where he mentioned the achievements he had in the past year

President Joe Biden on Wednesday hailed the “unbroken” people of Ukraine and the “incredible dignity” with which they’ve acted to repel Russia’s invading forces as he pledged on behalf of the Western world to maintain support for Kyiv’s defence for as long as necessary. Mr Biden delivered his remarks to a boisterous crowd who’d gathered hours ahead of time to hear him speak in the Great Court at Vilnius University, following the conclusion of this year’s Nato leaders’ summit, at which leaders of the 31-member defence alliance agreed to expedite Ukraine’s bid for membership in the bloc once the war with Russia has been brought to a close. The president, who was also met with one person in the crowd who held a sign marking him as a supporter of his predecessor, Donald Trump, noted the history of the place where he was speaking, and recalled how the Lithuanian yellow, green and red tricolour flag remained aloft outside the country’s diplomatic mission to Washington, even throughout the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. He said some of the older attendees in the crowd would “know better than anyone how precious the right to determine your own future is,” and praised Lithuania and the other Baltic states — Estonia and Latvia — for their strenuous advocacy for Ukraine’s defence and for Kyiv’s bid for membership in Nato. Mr Biden said that all parties involved “want this war to end,” but only on terms that will “uphold the basic principles” of the UN charter concerning national sovereignty and territorial integrity, calling those concepts “two pillars of peaceful relations among nations”. “One country cannot be allowed to seize his neighbour territory by force,” he said, adding that Moscow “could end this war tomorrow” by pulling back Russian forces from all of Ukraine’s territory, with the caveat that Moscow “has shown thus far no interest” in such an outcome because Russian president Vladimir Putin “still wrongly believes that he can outlast Ukraine”. “He can't believe it's their land, their country and their future and even after all this time, Putin still doubts their staying power,” Mr Biden said, adding that the Russian leader is “still making a bad bet” by thinking that the “conviction and the unity among the United States and our allies and partners will break down”. “He still doesn't understand that our commitment, our values, our freedom is something he can never, never, ever ever walk away from. It's who we are,” he said. “The defence of freedom is not the work of a day or a year. It's the calling of our lifetime — of all time. We’re steeled for the struggle ahead, our unity will not falter, I promise you”. Mr Biden added that the US and Western commitment to Ukraine’s defence “will not waver”. “Our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken. We will stand for liberty today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes,” he said. The president’s remarks echoed another rousing speech he delivered in Warsaw five months ago, when he pledged “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s defence and Nato’s unity less than 24 hours after a surprise visit to Kyiv. At the time, he pledged that Ukraine “will never be a victory for Russia,” and it appears that the rest of the West is on board with Mr Biden’s plans. In addition to the Nato leaders who gathered in Vilnius this week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida travelled there to unveil a new joint declaration from the Group of Seven in support of Kyiv’s defence. In remarks delivered following the G7 leaders’ session, Mr Biden said the joint declaration will “make it clear” that support for Kyiv from the world’s largest democracies “will last long into the future”. “This starts a process by which each of our nations and any other nation who wishes to participate will negotiate long-term bilateral or security commitments with him to Ukraine. We’re going to help Ukraine build a strong capable defence across land, air and sea ... which will enforce stability in the region and deter against any and all threats,” he said. Mr Biden reiterated the same sentiment a short time later during a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. He praised Mr Zelensky, the actor-turned-politician who has served as Ukraine’s leader since 2019, as having “done an enormous job” and promised that the US and its allies would “make sure that you get what you need”. “And I look forward to the day when we’re having the meetings celebrating your official membership in Nato, so thank you for what you’re doing,” he said. For his part, Mr Zelensky thanked the US president for his recent decision to provide Kyiv with cluster munitions for use against Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, telling Mr Biden that the move “will help us to save us”. The announcement of the joint declaration and the meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Zelensky came after days of tension between the Ukrainian leader and his other Western counterparts over Ukraine’s prospects for membership in Nato. While the US and many other Nato nations had been skittish about giving Ukraine a path to rapid membership while the war with Russia continues, other states have pushed for an immediate change in Kyiv’s status. But the joint declaration — and an announcement from Nato that Ukraine could skip the Membership Action Plan previously laid out for the country’s membership bid and join at a future date post-war — appeared to smooth over the tension between the allies and the Ukrainian leader. Asked how long it would take for Nato to accept Ukraine once the war was over, Mr Biden quipped: “An hour and 20 minutes”. Read More Biden says support for Ukraine ‘will not waver’ in fiery Vilnius speech after Zelensky Nato meeting - live Biden and Zelenskyy praise each other despite divisions over Ukraine war Ukraine’s greatest weapon isn’t on the battlefield The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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