AACo says no further inquiries needed following Lewis insider trading guilty plea

Despite its largest shareholder Joe Lewis pleading guilty to securities fraud, AACo has told the ASX there will be no further inquiry into whether its board leaked information.

Australian Agricultural Company has told the Australian stock exchange that no further investigation was needed over whether its board leaked information to its largest shareholder, British billionaire Joe Lewis.

The 86-year-old former owner of English soccer club Tottenham Hotspur pleaded guilty to three counts of securities fraud in a US District Court in New York last month.

Bloomberg reported that Lewis said: “I knew at the time what I was doing was wrong and I’m so embarrassed.”

Lewis is one of Britain’s richest men with a fortune of $US6.2bn ($9.7bn). He built his reputation as a currency speculator in the 1980s and early ’90s.

He owns almost 52 per cent of the $900m AACo, the nation’s largest integrated cattle and beef producer, which he built up over time through his investment ­vehicle Tavistock.

In July last year, Lewis was charged with securities fraud, with US prosecutors accusing him of tipping off pilots, personal assistants and romantic partners about companies in which he ­invested.

Bahamas-based Lewis had initially pleaded not guilty and at the time his lawyer had called them an “egregious error”.

AACo is Australia’s largest integrated cattle and beef producer.

US prosecutors alleged that he shared information with his personal pilot about material losses from the 2019 Queensland floods that he received from one of the then Tavistock representatives on AACo’s board.

After the guilty plea, the ASX compliance division had asked AACo whether it had “made further inquiries” to board members to ask if anyone had disclosed information to Lewis or his representatives.

In a response on Monday, AACo said “no”. AACo said previous inquiries in 2019 into the board – including “two relevant board members” – were completed and, after the ASX’s latest query letter on July 27 last year, “the result did not change”.

“Based on a consideration of the plea agreement, which is publicly available, the AACo board does not consider any further inquiry is necessary,” it said.

AACo noted that the matters referred to in the plea agreement were still to be considered by a US court at sentencing proceedings. “If any new information arises out of those proceedings and becomes publicly available, the AACo board will consider that information and determine whether any further inquiry is necessary,” it said.

In 2019, Shehan Dissanayake and Neil Reisman were both employees of Tavistock Group and on the AACo board

According to the AACo website, Dr Dissanayake is no longer on AACo’s board, while Mr Reisman left Tavistock but remains on the board. AACo board member Sarah Gentry is also a Tavistock employee, but was appointed to the AACo board in October 2022.