Ivan Boesky, who partially inspired the character Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street, has died at age 87.
The former financier was a central figure in the insider trading scandals of the 1980s.
At his peak, he was considered a genius in risk arbitrage, in the buyout stock speculation business, and his wealth was estimated at $280 million (£220 million).
However, the US Securities and Exchange Commission proved that he obtained tips from investment bankers about ongoing deals and used them illegally before the information was released to the public.
He began to cooperate with an impetuous young lawyer named Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Giuliani in a bid for leniency as part of the government’s investigation into insider trading networks.
Working undercover, Boesky secretly recorded three conversations with Michael Milken, the so-called “junk bond king.”
Milken ended up pleading 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.”
After Boesky’s arrest, reports circulated widely that he had told business students at the University of California at Berkeley in 1985 or 1986 that “by the way, greed is okay. 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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The phrase was memorably repeated by Michael Douglas in his Oscar-winning portrayal of Gordon Gekko, a high-flying trader, in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street.
Boesky, however, said he did not remember saying “greed is healthy.”
Although he usually worked 18-hour days, the gray-haired and thin Boesky also lived a life of opulence.
He wore designer clothes, traveled in limousines, private jets and helicopters, and renovated his Westchester County mansion with a Jeffersonian dome to resemble the former president’s Monticello residence.
Three years after his release from a Brooklyn halfway house in April 1990, Boesky and his wife Seema divorced after 30 years of marriage.
Claiming he was left penniless after paying fines, restitution and legal fees, he earned $20 million in cash and $180,000 a year in alimony from his wife’s $100 million fortune.
He also got a $2.5 million home in San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood, where he lived with his childhood friend, Houshang Wekili.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
