NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ordered

British billionaire Joe Lewis on Thursday to pay a $5 million

fine and serve three years of probation for sharing illegal

stock tips, allowing an investment firm's 87-year-old founder to

avoid prison after prosecutors and his attorneys urged leniency.

U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke in Manhattan sentenced

Lewis, who pleaded guilty in January to one count of conspiracy

and two counts of securities fraud.

Federal sentencing guidelines had called for a prison

sentence of up to two years, but Clarke was not bound by them.

Prosecutors said the Tavistock Group founder, whose family

trust controls a majority of London's Tottenham Hotspur soccer

team, passed inside information on his portfolio companies to

two of his private pilots as well as friends, personal

assistants and romantic partners.

Those tips enabled the recipients of the information to reap

millions of dollars in profit, according to prosecutors.

Lewis in January entered a plea deal with prosecutors

agreeing to a $50 million fine of his Bahamas company, Broad

Bay.

He also agreed to resign board seats at U.S. companies and

relinquish majority ownership of Boxer Capital, the

biotech-focused fund where prosecutors say he got tips.

In a letter to the court, Lewis apologized for his actions,

saying they were spurred by hubris and childish exuberance and

resulted in a devastating and self-inflicted humiliation.

The London native, who now lives in the Bahamas, traveled to

New York to face the charges immediately after learning of his

indictment, his attorneys said in court papers.

Lewis has since remained in the country, posting $300

million bail secured by his yacht, the Aviva, and a private

aircraft.

His decision not to fight extradition, coupled with his

significant health issues, had led prosecutors to recommend

leniency for Lewis, whose doctors have said prison could be

lethal.

Lewis is worth $6.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Prosecutors have said he collected inside information about

four companies in which he had invested, and tipped friends and

associates between 2019 and 2021.

According to prosecutors, the companies included cancer

therapy developer Mirati Therapeutics and BCTG Acquisition, a

blank-check company that Boxer Capital sponsored and which took

biotech company Tango Therapeutics ( TNGX ) public in a merger

in 2021.

The two pilots were also accused in the case of making

millions of dollars in illegal profits from Lewis' tips.

One of them, Patrick O'Connor, pleaded guilty and is

scheduled to be sentenced in May.

The second pilot, Bryan Waugh, has denied wrongdoing and

said the charges should be dismissed because he is only accused

of trading on stock recommendations, not inside information.