Trump pardons billionaire owner of Australia’s largest beef producer

Washington: US President Donald Trump has pardoned British billionaire Joe Lewis over an insider trading conviction relating in part to Lewis’s ownership of Australia’s largest cattle owner and beef producer.

Lewis, 88, pleaded guilty last year after American prosecutors alleged he passed inside information about his portfolio companies to two of his private pilots, as well as friends, assistants and romantic partners. He was ordered to pay a $US5 million ($8 million) fine and serve three years of probation.

One of the companies involved was Australian Agricultural Co, which Lewis owns through his investment firm Tavistock Group. This masthead reported in 2023 that the company owns a 52.1 per cent share of AACo, with mining billionaire Andrew Forrest owning another 18.5 per cent.

A White House official confirmed that Trump approved the pardon and noted Lewis’s 75-year business career.

“Mr Lewis admitted he made a terrible mistake, did not fight extradition in the case, and paid a $5 million fine,” the official said. “Mr Lewis is 88 years old and has requested a pardon so that he may receive medical treatment and visit his grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the United States.”

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Brisbane-headquartered AACo is Australia’s largest cattle herd operator, owning around 6.4 million hectares, or 1 per cent, of Australia’s total landmass. It is the country’s second-largest landowner.

Lewis – who, according to Forbes magazine, lives on his yacht in the Bahamas – formerly owned Tottenham Hotspur football club. His family reportedly retains a controlling stake in the entity that owns the club.

In a statement to the BBC, Lewis 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.”

Lewis joins a growing list of high-profile business figures pardoned by Trump, including Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and served four months in prison.

Trump has also pardoned friends and allies, including, earlier this week, largely symbolic pardons for his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others involved in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

His first major act upon returning to office in January was to pardon or commute the sentences of nearly 1600 people who participated in the January 6, 2021, riots at the US Capitol as the election results were certified.

Last month, Trump commuted the sentence of George Santos, a former Republican congressman who pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and identity theft.

With Reuters, Jessica Yun

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