87-year-old Joe Lewis has been sentenced to three years of probation for leaking information. With a fortune of $7.3 billion, Lewis joins the ranks of billionaires who have been convicted of a crime but managed to protect their fortunes.
The 87-year-old founder of the Tavistock Group was spared prison time by a federal judge in New York, citing his age and health problems. In the plea deal, Lewis also waived his right to appeal if he is not sentenced to prison. He was also fined 5 million dollars.
This decision marked one of the most turbulent periods of Lewis’ career: A stain on a glorious story that has seen him go from a high school dropout to the owner of an empire that now includes 5-star hotels, private lending institutions, and residences for the wealthy. Yet his fortune will remain untouched. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Lewis is the 355th richest person in the world with a fortune of $7.3 billion. This total is higher than before the insider trading case he was accused of. Because one of the accusations in the case included a cash purchase deal in which his company made 8 times more profit with the move of Lewis himself.
The list is expanding
According to Bloomberg, rich people in this category include Thomas Kwok ($11 billion), the former chairman of Hong Kong real estate giant Sun Hung Kai Properties, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2014 for conspiring to bribe a local official, and junk bond king Michael Milken ($5.3 billion), who served time for securities fraud. The list could soon include crypto tycoon Changpeng Zhao, with a fortune of $43.5 billion, if he pleads guilty to the charges against him.
