Ivan F. Boesky, the flamboyant stock trader whose cooperation with the government cracked open one of the largest insider trading scandals in the history of Wall Street, has died at the age of 87.
An official court sketch from Boesky's trial I Photo: Library of Congress
A representative at the Marianne Boesky Gallery, owned by Ivan Boesky’s daughter, confirmed his death, reported The Associated Press.
The son of a Detroit delicatessen owner, Boesky was once considered one of the richest and most influential risk-takers on Wall Street.
Born to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants, Boesky had parlayed $700,000 from his late mother-in-law’s estate into a fortune estimated at more than $200 million, propelling him into the ranks of Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans.
Working undercover, Boesky secretly taped three conversations with Michael Milken, the so-called “junk bond king” whose work with Drexel Burnham Lambert had revolutionized the credit markets.
Milken pleaded guilty to six felonies and served 22 months in prison, while Boesky paid a $100 million fine and spent 20 months in a minimum-security California prison nicknamed “Club Fed,” beginning in March 1988.
After Boesky’s arrest, accounts circulated widely that he had told business students during a commencement address at the University of California at Berkeley in 1985 or 1986: “Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”
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