(PatriotWise.com) — Stock trader Ivan Boesky, the man who helped take down one of the largest insider trading scandals in Wall Street history, died at the age of 87.
Boesky’s death was confirmed by a representative from his daughter Marianne’s gallery. However, no details about his death were provided.
Born in Detroit to a delicatessen owner, Ivan Boesky was once one of the most influential stock traders on Wall Street who, with $700,000 from his mother-in-law’s estate, made more than $200 million, placing him on Forbes’ 400 Richest Americans list.
After being implicated in an insider trading scandal in the 1980s, Boesky agreed to cooperate with then-US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Guiliani in exchange for leniency.
With Boesky’s cooperation, Giuliani uncovered a broader scandal that involved some of the country’s most respected brokerage firms and destroyed promising careers.
Boesky agreed to work undercover, secretly recording conversations with “junk bond king” Michael Milken. Eventually, Milken pleaded guilty and served nearly two years in prison.
Boesky was sentenced in late 1987 to 20 months in the infamous “Club Fed” in California and paid a fine of $100 million.
Following Boesky’s arrest, lore began to spread about a commencement address he gave to UC Berkeley business students in the mid-1980s in which he purportedly said that greed was “all right.”
According to accounts, the flamboyant stock trader allegedly told the students that he believed greed was healthy and that people could still “feel good” about themselves even if they were greedy.
The purported comments were later echoed by the character Gordon Gekko in the 1987 Oliver Stone film “Wall Street.” The role earned actor Michael Douglas an Academy Award.
In another quote attributed to Boesky in a 1984 Atlantic Monthly article, the stock trader allegedly said that climbing a pile of silver dollars could be “an aphrodisiac experience.”
However, Boesky later admitted that he couldn’t remember ever making any of the comments attributed to him.
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