U.S. Gold Trader Gets 6-Year Term for Tokyo Burglaries
TOKYO — A Harvard-educated American gold dealer dubbed “the intellectual spider man” has been sentenced to six years in prison for a series of night burglaries staged to recoup his trading losses.
Bruce W. Lewis, 35, a native of Beverly, Mass., was convicted last week in Tokyo on 10 counts of burglary and one of robbery, his attorney said.
Police said the burglaries of office buildings in central Tokyo between late 1984 and his arrest last January netted Lewis more than $25,000.
Lewis studied at Harvard, received a degree from the University of Paris in 1979 and traded in gold futures in Hong Kong, Tokyo and the United States.
His reported proficiency in five languages, including Japanese and Chinese, led the Japanese tabloid press to dub him the “Intellectual Spider Man.”
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
