Michael Milken

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Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"),[2] and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for violating U.S. securities laws.[3] Milken's compensation while head of the high-yield bond department at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the late 1980s exceeded $1 billion over a four-year period, a record for U.S. income at that time.[4] With a net worth of US$6 billion as of 2022, he is among the richest people in the world.[5][6]

Michael Milken
Milken in 2014
Born
Michael Robert Milken

(1946-07-04) July 4, 1946 (age 78)
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (BS)
University of Pennsylvania (MBA)
Occupation(s)Businessman, financier
Known forDeveloping the High-yield bond market, Indictment for securities fraud
Criminal chargesSecurities and reporting violations (1989)
Criminal penaltyServed 22 months in prison
$600 million fine
Criminal statusReleased
Pardoned (February 18, 2020)[1]
Spouse
Lori Hackel
(m. 1968)
Children3
RelativesLowell Milken (brother)
Websitewww.mikemilken.com

Milken was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud in 1989 in an insider trading investigation. In a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to securities and reporting violations but not to racketeering or insider trading. Milken was sentenced to ten years in prison, fined $600 million (although his personal website claims $200 million)[7] and permanently barred from the securities industry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His sentence was later reduced to two years for cooperating with testimony against his former colleagues and for good behavior.[8] Milken was pardoned by President Donald Trump on February 18, 2020.

Since his release from prison, he has become known for his charitable donations.[9] He is co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation, chairman of the Milken Institute, and founder of medical philanthropies funding research into melanoma, cancer, and other life-threatening diseases.[10] A prostate cancer survivor, Milken has devoted significant resources to research on the disease.[11]

Early life and education

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Milken was born into a middle-class[12][13] Jewish family in Encino, California.[14]

He graduated from Birmingham High School where he was the head cheerleader and worked while in school at a diner.[15] His classmates included future Disney president Michael Ovitz[16] and actresses Sally Field and Cindy Williams. In 1968, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. with highest honors. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.[17] He received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Berkeley, Milken was influenced by credit studies authored by W. Braddock Hickman, a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, who noted that a portfolio of non-investment grade bonds offered "risk-adjusted" returns greater than that of an investment-grade portfolio.

Career

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Through his Wharton professors, Milken landed a summer job at Drexel Harriman Ripley, an old-line investment bank, in 1969. After completing his MBA, he joined Drexel (by then known as Drexel Firestone) as director of low-grade bond research. He was also given control of some capital and permitted to trade. Over the next 17 years, he had only four down months.[6]

Drexel merged with Burnham and Company in 1973 to form Drexel Burnham. Despite the firm's name, Burnham was the nominal survivor; the Drexel name came first only at the insistence of the more powerful investment banks, whose blessing was necessary for the merged firm to inherit Drexel's position as a "major" firm.

Milken was one of the few prominent holdovers from the Drexel side of the merger, and he became the merged firm's head of convertibles. He persuaded his new boss, fellow Wharton alumnus Tubby Burnham, to let him start a high-yield bond trading department—an operation that soon earned a 100 percent return on investment.[6] By 1976, Milken's income at the firm, which had become Drexel Burnham Lambert, was estimated at $5 million a year. In 1978, Milken moved the high-yield bond operation to Century City in Los Angeles.[18][19][20]

High-yield bonds and leveraged buyouts

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By the mid-1980s, Milken's network of high-yield bond buyers (notably Fred Carr's Executive Life Insurance Company and Tom Spiegel's Columbia Savings & Loan) had reached a size that enabled him to raise large amounts of money quickly.

This money-raising ability also facilitated the activities of leveraged buyout (LBO) firms such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and of the so-called "greenmailers". Most of them were armed with a "highly confident letter" from Drexel, a tool Drexel's corporate finance wing crafted that promised to raise the necessary debt in time to fulfill the buyer's obligations. It carried no legal status, but by that time Milken had a reputation for being able to make markets for any bonds that he underwrote. For this reason, "highly confident letters" were considered to reliably demonstrate capacity to pay.[21][22] Supporters, like George Gilder in his book Telecosm (2000), state that Milken was "a key source of the organizational changes that have impelled economic growth over the last twenty years. Most striking was the productivity surge in capital, as Milken ... and others took the vast sums trapped in old-line businesses and put them back into the markets."[23]

Despite his influence in the financial world during the 1980s, (at least one source called him the most powerful American financier since J. P. Morgan),[24] Milken is an intensely private man who shuns publicity; he reportedly owned almost all photographs taken of him.[6][16]

Later career

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Milken and his brother Lowell founded Knowledge Universe in 1996, as well as Knowledge Learning Corporation (KLC), the parent company of KinderCare Learning Centers, the largest for-profit child care provider in the country. Michael Milken was chairman of Knowledge Universe until it was sold in 2015.[25][26]

He invested in K12 Inc., a publicly traded education management organization (EMO) that provides online schooling, including to charter school students, for whom services are paid by tax dollars,[27] which is the largest EMO in terms of enrollment.[28]

Scandal

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Dan Stone, a former Drexel executive, wrote in his book April Fools that Milken was under nearly constant scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1979 onward due to unethical and sometimes illegal behavior in the high-yield department.[24]

Milken's role in such behavior has been much debated. Stone claims that Milken viewed the securities laws, rules, and regulations with a degree of contempt, feeling they hindered the free flow of trade. However, Stone said that while Milken condoned questionable and illegal acts by his colleagues, Milken himself personally followed the rules.[24] Milken often contacted Fred Joseph, Drexel's president and CEO, with ethical questions; Joseph was known for his strict view of the securities laws.[6]

On the other hand, several of the sources James B. Stewart used for Den of Thieves told him that Milken often tried to get as much as five times the maximum markup on trades that was permitted at the time.[29]

Harvey A. Silverglate, a defense attorney who represented Milken during the appellate process, disputes that view in his book Three Felonies a Day: "Milken's biggest problem was that some of his most ingenious but entirely lawful maneuvers were viewed, by those who initially did not understand them, as felonious, precisely because they were novel – and often extremely profitable."[30]

Ivan Boesky and an intensifying investigation

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The SEC inquiries never advanced beyond the investigation phase until 1986, when arbitrageur Ivan Boesky pleaded guilty to securities fraud as part of a larger insider trading investigation. As part of his plea, Boesky implicated Milken in several illegal transactions, including insider trading, stock manipulation, fraud, and stock parking (buying stocks for the benefit of another). This led to an SEC probe of Drexel, as well as a separate criminal probe by Rudy Giuliani, then United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Although both investigations were almost entirely focused on Milken's department, Milken refused to talk with Drexel (which launched its own internal investigation) except through his lawyers.[6][24] It turned out that Milken's legal team believed Drexel would be forced to cooperate with the government at some point, believing that a securities firm would not survive the bad publicity of a long criminal and SEC probe.[29]

For two years, Drexel insisted that nothing illegal had occurred, even when the SEC sued Drexel in 1988. Later that year, Giuliani began considering an indictment of Drexel under the powerful Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Drexel management, concluding that a financial institution could not possibly survive a RICO indictment, immediately began plea bargain talks. However, talks collapsed on December 19, when Giuliani made several demands that went beyond even what those who believed an indictment would destroy the firm were willing to accept. For example, Giuliani demanded that Milken leave the firm if indicted.[24]

Only a day later, Drexel lawyers discovered suspicious activity in one of the limited partnerships Milken set up to allow members of his department to make their own investments. That entity, MacPherson Partners, had acquired several warrants for the stock of Storer Broadcasting in 1985. At the time, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts was in the midst of a leveraged buyout of Storer, and Drexel was lead underwriter for the bonds being issued. One of Drexel's other clients bought several Storer warrants and sold them back to the high-yield bond department. The department in turn sold them to MacPherson. This partnership included Milken, other Drexel executives, and a few Drexel customers. It also included several managers of money market funds who had worked with Milken in the past. It appeared that the money managers bought the warrants for themselves and did not offer the same opportunity to the funds they managed.[24] Some of Milken's children also received warrants, according to Stewart, raising the appearance of Milken self-dealing.[29]

The warrants to money managers were especially problematic. At the very least, Milken's actions were a serious breach of Drexel's internal regulations, and the money managers had breached their fiduciary duty to their clients. At worst, the warrants could have been construed as bribes to the money managers, to influence decisions they made for their funds.[29]

Indeed, several money managers were eventually convicted on bribery charges.[31] The discovery of MacPherson Partners—whose existence had not been known to the public at the time—seriously eroded Milken's credibility with the board. On December 21, 1988, Drexel entered an Alford plea to six counts of stock parking and stock manipulation. It allowed Drexel to maintain its innocence while conceding that it "was not in a position to dispute" the allegations made by the government. As part of the deal, Drexel agreed that Milken had to leave the firm if indicted.[6][24]

Indictment and sentencing

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Milken in 2018

In March 1989, a federal grand jury indicted Milken on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud. The indictment accused Milken of a long list of misconduct, including insider trading, stock parking (concealing the real owner of a stock), tax evasion, and numerous instances of repayment of illicit profits.[clarification needed] One charge was that Boesky paid Drexel $5.3 million in 1986 for Milken's share of profits from illegal trading. This payment was represented as a consulting fee to Drexel. Shortly afterward, Milken resigned from Drexel and formed his own firm, International Capital Access Group.[6][24]

Milken's protege Terren Peizer had worked as a junk bond salesman for Milken, managing an account with which Drexel had an illegal arrangement that included insider trading and phony tax losses.[32][33][34][35][36][37] Peizer provided material evidence to prosecutors against Milken.[38] At Milken's pre-sentencing hearing for securities fraud in 1990, Peizer testified against Milken in exchange for immunity from both criminal prosecution and SEC sanctions.[39][40][41]

On April 24, 1990, Milken pleaded guilty to six counts of securities and tax violations.[5] Three of them involved dealings with Boesky to conceal the real owner of a stock:[30]

  • Aiding and abetting another person's failure to file an accurate 13d statement with the SEC, since the schedule was not amended to reflect an understanding that any loss would be made up
  • Sending confirmation slips through the mail that failed to disclose that a commission was included in the price
  • Aiding and abetting another in filing inaccurate broker-dealer reports with the SEC

Two other counts were related to tax evasion in transactions Milken carried out for a client of the firm, David Solomon, a fund manager[30]

  • Selling stock without disclosure of an understanding that the purchaser would not lose money
  • Agreeing to sell securities to a customer and to buy those securities back at a real loss to the customer, but with an understanding that he would try to find a future profitable transaction to make up for any losses

The last count was for conspiracy to commit these five violations.

As part of his plea, Milken agreed to pay $200 million in fines. At the same time, he agreed to a settlement with the SEC in which he paid $400 million to investors who had been hurt by his actions. He also accepted a lifetime ban from any involvement in the securities industry. In a related civil lawsuit against Drexel, he agreed to pay $500 million to Drexel's investors.[42][43]

Critics of the government charge that the government indicted Milken's brother Lowell to pressure Milken to settle, a tactic some legal scholars condemn as unethical. "I am troubled by – and other scholars are troubled by – the notion of putting relatives on the bargaining table," said Vivian Berger, a professor at Columbia University Law School, in a 1990 interview with The New York Times.[44] As part of the deal, the case against Lowell was dropped. Federal investigators also questioned some of Milken's relatives about their investments.[6]

At Milken's sentencing, Judge Kimba Wood told him:

You were willing to commit only crimes that were unlikely to be detected. ... When a man of your power in the financial world ... repeatedly conspires to violate, and violates, securities and tax business in order to achieve more power and wealth for himself ... a significant prison term is required.[29]

In statements to a parole board in 1991, Judge Wood estimated that the "total loss from Milken's crimes" was $318,000, less than the government's estimate of $4.7 million, and she recommended that he be eligible for parole in three years.[45] Milken's sentence was later reduced to two years from ten; he served 22 months.[46][47]

2013 SEC investigation

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In February 2013, the SEC announced that they were investigating whether Milken violated his lifetime ban from the securities industry. The investigation concerned Milken's allegedly providing investment advice through Guggenheim Partners.[48] Since 2011, the SEC had been investigating Guggenheim's relationship with Milken.[49]

Presidential pardon

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February 2020 pardon granted by Donald Trump

In June 2018, it was reported that some of president Donald Trump's supporters and friends, including Kevin McCarthy, Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, Elaine Chao, and Rudy Giuliani, the onetime federal prosecutor whose criminal investigation led to Milken's conviction, were urging the president to pardon Milken.[50] Milken's attempts to secure a presidential pardon spanned multiple administrations.[51]

On February 18, 2020, Trump granted a full pardon to Milken.[52][53] However, his previous trading license which he lost following his conviction still remained void, and he would still have to reapply and obtain a new trading license in order to return to trading securities.[54]

Philanthropy

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Milken speaks with PayPal CEO Dan Schulman, 2019.

According to Forbes, Milken has given away between 5–10% of his fortune, earning a philanthropy score of 3 out of 5.[55] Upon his release from prison in 1993, Milken founded the Prostate Cancer Foundation for prostate cancer research, which by 2010 was "the largest philanthropic source of funds for research into prostate cancer".[56] Milken himself was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in the same month he was released.[57] His cancer is currently in remission. The Prostate Cancer Foundation works closely with Major League Baseball through its Home Run Challenge program to promote awareness of prostate cancer and raise money for medical research. Each season in the weeks leading up to Father's Day, Milken visits many ballparks and appears on TV and radio broadcasts during the games.

In 2003, Milken launched a Washington, D.C.-based think tank called FasterCures, which seeks greater efficiency in researching all serious diseases. Initiatives of FasterCures include TRAIN, Partnering for Cures, and the Philanthropy Advisory Service.[57]

On March 11, 2014, President Steven Knapp of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. announced the university was renaming its public health school after Milken as a result of a total of $80 million in gifts, $50 million from the Milken Institute and the Milken Family Foundation and $30 million gift from Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone. The gifts were designated for research and scholarship on public health issues.[58]

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Milken became the first recipient of the Ig Nobel Economics Prize in 1991.[59][60][61]

Ayad Akhtar's 2016 play Junk, set during the bond trading scandals of the 1980s, is partly based on Milken's "fall from grace". Milken is the inspiration for the main character in the play.[62]

Milken is referenced by Hank Scorpio in The Simpsons episode “You Only Move Twice”.

Milken is referenced by Chris Stevens in Northern Exposure Season 6, Ep. 5 – The Robe (31:29). “Trust and honesty. The age-old quest of Diogenes in a post-Milken universe.”

Personal life

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Milken is married to Lori Anne Hackel, whom he had dated in high school.[63] The couple have three children.[64] He reportedly follows a vegetarian-like diet rich in fruits and vegetables for its health benefits and has co-authored a vegan cookbook with Beth Ginsberg.[65][66]

See also

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References

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Notes
  1. ^ "Trump grants clemency to former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, financier Michael Milken". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 20, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  2. ^ "Michael Milken's Guilt". The New York Times. April 26, 1990. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  3. ^ The Associated Press (February 22, 1991). "Milken Assigned to Bay Area Prison". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  4. ^ Eichenwald, Kurt (April 3, 1989). "Wages Even Wall St. Can't Stomach". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017. Surely no one in American history has earned anywhere near as much in a year as Mr. Milken.
  5. ^ a b "Profile: Michael Milken". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 27, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kornbluth, Jesse (1992). Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken. New York City: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-10937-3.
  7. ^ "Michael Milken - Philanthropist, Financier, Medical Research Innovator & Public Health Advocate".
  8. ^ "Milken's Sentence Reduced by Judge; 7 Months Are Left". The New York Times. August 6, 1992. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  9. ^ Jacob Berkman, "Zuckerberg among nine new Jewish individuals and families to take the Giving Pledge". JTA.org. December 10, 2012. Archived from the original on March 11, 2013. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  10. ^ Daniels, Cora (November 29, 2004). "The Man Who Changed Medicine". Fortune. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  11. ^ LAURA LANDRO (May 3, 2010). "Donor of the Day: Gift Funds Melanoma Research". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
  12. ^ Roger E. Alcaly, "The Golden Age of Junk" Archived December 10, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, New York Review of Books, May 26, 1994.
  13. ^ James F. Peltz, "Milken's Largess Slows Down: Donations: The junk bond king's charitable trusts have virtually stopped growing since his 1989 federal indictment", Los Angeles Times, September 15, 1992.
  14. ^ America in the 20th Century: 1980-1989, pg. 1200
  15. ^ Edward Jay Epstein MANHATTAN, INC: "The Secret World of Mike Milken" Archived February 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, September 1987.
  16. ^ a b L. J. Davis (July 9, 1989). "Hollywood's Most Secret Agent". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 14, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  17. ^ "UC Berkeley Inter-Fraternity Council: Sigma Alpha Mu". Archived from the original on November 19, 2007.
  18. ^ "Pioneer, Billionaire--and, Soon, Unemployed: Michael Milken". Los Angeles Times. January 26, 1989. Archived from the original on June 7, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2020. Finally, in 1978, Milken asked to move the junk bond trading operation from New York to the Century City section of Los Angeles.
  19. ^ "Junk bond king Michael Milken looms large in LA". Los Angeles Times. May 1, 2016. Archived from the original on March 8, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2020. Drexel Burnham Lambert ... moved its high-yield bond group to Century City in 1978
  20. ^ "Spotlight - Mohammed and the mountain". The New York Times. January 29, 1978. p. 5. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2019. Mike Milken, the 30-year-old head of the corporate ... Hunched behind a borrowed desk in a cubicle in Century City the other day
  21. ^ James B. Stewart (1992). Den of Thieves. Simon and Schuster. p. 133. ISBN 067179227X. The firm could issue a "highly confident" letter, a formal pledge from Drexel that ...
  22. ^ Floyd Norris (June 26, 1994). "MARKET WATCH - Once Again, A Time to Be Highly Confident". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018. Just as when Mike Milken was riding high ... as good as cash in hand.
  23. ^ Gilder, George (2000). Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World. Simon & Schuster. p. 170. ISBN 9780743215947.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h Dan G. Stone (1990). April Fools: An Insider's Account of the Rise and Collapse of Drexel Burnham. New York: Donald I. Fine. ISBN 1-55611-228-9.
  25. ^ "Knowledge Universe reaches $1.6 billion in revenue". Oregon Business. February 2011. Archived from the original on February 7, 2011. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
  26. ^ "Junk bond king Milken is back, plans to raise $1bn". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  27. ^ Stephanie Saul (December 12, 2011). "Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 19, 2012. Retrieved July 17, 2012.
  28. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved July 17, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  29. ^ a b c d e Stewart, James B. (1992). Den of Thieves (reprint ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 517. ISBN 0-671-79227-X. Archived from the original on May 14, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  30. ^ a b c "Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent (Chapter Four: "Following (or Harassing?) the Money"), Encounter Books, 2009" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on September 27, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  31. ^ Sullivan, Ronald (July 29, 1992). "Fund Manager Convicted of Taking Milken Bribes". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 9, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  32. ^ "Dow Up Again". Tampa Bay Times. October 20, 1990.
  33. ^ "New York Magazine". September 16, 1991.
  34. ^ Stewart, James B. (2012). Den of Thieves. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781439126202.
  35. ^ Eichenwald, Kurt (November 28, 1990). "Witness Against Milken Settles S.E.C. Charges". The New York Times.
  36. ^ Kornbluth, Jesse (1992). Highly confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken. William Morrow and Co. p. 213.
  37. ^ Griffin, Nancy; Masters, Kim (2016). Hit & Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781439128046.
  38. ^ "DEFENDANT' SUPPLEMENTAL MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR REDUCTION OF SENTENCE Pursuant to Rule 35(b)", US v. Boesky, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, April 13, 1989.
  39. ^ Labaton, Stephen (December 10, 1988). "4th Drexel Employee in Immunity Bargain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  40. ^ Zey, Mary (September 29, 2017). Banking on Fraud: Drexel, Junk Bonds, and Buyouts. Routledge. ISBN 9781351314831.
  41. ^ David A. Vise (September 12, 1989). "New Charges against Milken Expected", The Washington Post.
  42. ^ "Drexel Sues Milken, Seeking Repayment". The New York Times. September 12, 1991. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  43. ^ "Milken to Pay $500 Million More In $1.3 Billion Drexel Settlement". The New York Times. February 18, 1992. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  44. ^ "Tactics in Wall Street Cases Troubling Some Lawyers". The New York Times. May 6, 1990. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  45. ^ Eichenwald, Kurt (February 20, 1991). "Judge Who Gave Milken 10 Years Wants Him Eligible for Parole in 3". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  46. ^ Al Gini & Alexei M. Marcoux Case Studies in Business Ethics Archived March 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine; accessed April 24, 2018.
  47. ^ "Stars of the junkyard - Twenty years after Michael Milken's junk-bond firm came crashing down, the financial revolution that it fostered lives on" Archived October 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, economist.com, October 21, 2010.
  48. ^ "SEC is investigating Michael Milken, magazine says". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  49. ^ "Dodgers' Guggenheim subject of SEC probe over Michael Milken ties". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 16, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  50. ^ Mangan, Dan (February 18, 2020). "Trump pardons Michael Milken, face of 1980s insider trading scandals". CNBC. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  51. ^ Farrell, Greg; Burton, Katherine; Gittelsohn, John (June 15, 2018). "Trump Insiders Seek Pardon for 'Junk Bond King' Michael Milken". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  52. ^ "Trump grants clemency to former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, financier Michael Milken". The Washington Post. Associated Press. February 18, 2020. Archived from the original on February 20, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  53. ^ Baker, Peter; Haberman, Maggie; Shear, Michael D. (February 18, 2020). "Trump Commutes Corruption Sentence of Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 18, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  54. ^ "Milken, 'Junk Bond King,' could return to Wall St. after Trump pardon". Fox Business. February 18, 2020. Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  55. ^ Profile, Michael Milken, Forbes as of October 21, 2022
  56. ^ Landro, Laura (May 3, 2010). "Melanoma Survivor Seeks Cure". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on April 25, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  57. ^ a b Barbic, Kari (Summer 2012). "The Accelerator". Philanthropy. Archived from the original on August 13, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  58. ^ Nick Anderson (March 10, 2014). "GWU to receive $80 million for public health; donors are Milken and Redstone". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 28, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  59. ^ Maugh, Thomas (October 5, 1991). "Ig Nobel Prizes Go to Those Likely to Be Overlooked : Lampoon: MIT researchers create the new series of awards, named after the 'inventor of soda pop.' Among the first winners are Vice President Dan Quayle and imprisoned junk-bond king Michael Milken". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  60. ^ "Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize". Improbable.com. August 2006. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  61. ^ ""Junk" — a new play about the first Ig Nobel Economics Prize winner (Michael Milken)". Improbable.com. November 24, 2017. Archived from the original on January 21, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  62. ^ Brantley, Ben (November 2, 2017). "Review: 'Junk' Revives a Go-Go Era of Debt and Duplicity". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  63. ^ "THE MILKEN SENTENCE; Milken: Pathfinder for the 'Junk Bond' Era". The New York Times. November 22, 1990. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  64. ^ "Judgment Day". New York Magazine. September 24, 1990. Archived from the original on May 26, 2013. Retrieved April 22, 2016 – via Google Books.
  65. ^ "Amazon author page for Michael Milken, showing 1998 and 1999 cookbooks, plus another 2008 book". Amazon. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  66. ^ "Roderick K. Michael Milken Seeking Faster Cures to Prostate Cancer and More. Life Extension Magazine. July 2012". Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
Further reading
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  Media related to Michael Milken at Wikimedia Commons