Ivan Boesky

At 13 he bought a 1937 Chevrolet truck, painted it white, and sold ice cream in Detroit parks for about 150 dollars a week in nickels and dimes. His father, an immigrant from Russia, ran a string of bars and delicatessens called the Brass Rail that slid into strip clubs as the city thinned out. Boesky dropped out of three colleges. Detroit College of Law admitted him anyway, in 1959, when it required no undergraduate degree, and he withdrew twice before finishing. No major Detroit firm would hire him. He had married Seema Silberstein, whose father owned the Beverly Hills Hotel, and in 1966 the couple moved to New York, where he drifted between brokerages and was fired from one for losing 20,000 dollars.

In 1975 he opened Ivan F. Boesky and Company with 700,000 dollars from his wife's family, betting on takeovers at sizes arbitrage had never carried. He cleared an estimated 65 million dollars when Chevron bought Gulf, 50 million when Texaco took Getty, and 50 million on Philip Morris and General Foods. He kept 160 telephone lines and said he slept three hours. Some of what came down those lines he had bought. Martin Siegel of Kidder Peabody took 700,000 dollars in cash, delivered by courier in suitcases. Dennis Levine of Drexel Burnham Lambert took a promised cut.

On May 18, 1986, Boesky gave the commencement address at Berkeley's business school. "Greed is all right, by the way," he told the graduates. "I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself." The hall applauded. He said later that he could not remember saying it. On September 17 he surrendered and agreed to wear a wire, taping three conversations with Michael Milken, who had financed his trades and spoken with him daily. What he handed over produced convictions or guilty pleas against Siegel, Boyd Jefferies, Paul Bilzerian, four Guinness executives in London and Milken himself. Regulators also let him quietly sell some 440 million dollars of stock before the November 14 settlement was announced, sparing him the collapse his own news caused.

Wall Street opened on December 11, 1987, with a raider partly modeled on him telling shareholders that greed is good. Seven days later a judge gave Boesky three years. He served it at a California prison camp and a Brooklyn halfway house, out in April 1990 and barred from securities for life. The 100 million dollars was a record. He later deducted part of it from his taxes. The Jewish Theological Seminary took his name off the library he endowed. Congress stiffened insider trading penalties in 1988. Convictions from the same investigation were reversed on appeal, and the charge that prosecutors overreached outlived them. Milken was pardoned in 2020. Boesky died in La Jolla, California, on May 20, 2024.

Ivan Boesky's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Ivan F. Boesky & Company company
  Founded with 700,000 dollars from his wife's family and built into a group of investment partnerships 1975
• Merger Mania book
  His own account of risk arbitrage, written with the journalist Jeff Madrick 1985
• Berkeley business school commencement address speech
  Delivered May 18, 1986. Greed is healthy, and the graduates applauded 1986
• Cooperation agreement with the SEC and federal prosecutors other
  Three taped conversations with Michael Milken and testimony that reached as far as London 1986

• March 6, 1937 aged 0 Born in Detroit to Russian Jewish immigrants His father ran the Brass Rail bars and delicatessens.
• 1950 aged ~13 Buys a truck at 13 and sells ice cream in Detroit parks About 150 dollars a week in nickels and dimes.
• 1962 aged ~25 Marries Seema Silberstein while still in law school Her father, Ben Silberstein, owned the Beverly Hills Hotel.
• 1975 aged ~38 Opens Ivan F. Boesky & Company The 700,000 dollars of start-up money came from his wife's family.
• May 18, 1986 aged 49 Tells the Berkeley business graduates that greed is healthy Four months before he surrendered to federal authorities.
• September 17, 1986 aged 49 Surrenders and agrees to wear a wire He taped three conversations with Michael Milken.
• November 14, 1986 aged 49 Settles with the SEC for 100 million dollars Half disgorged profits, half civil penalty, and a lifetime bar from the securities business.
• December 18, 1987 aged 50 Sentenced to three years in prison He had pleaded guilty in April to a single felony count of conspiracy.
• May 20, 2024 aged 87 Dies at his home in La Jolla, California He was 87.

• Michael Milken b. 1946
  Financier who built the modern high-yield bond market at Drexel Burnham Lambert, pleaded guilty to six securities and tax felonies in 1990, and later funded medical research and an economic think tank. informed on
• Bernie Madoff 1938–2021
  Financier who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history — costing investors tens of billions of dollars. later financial scandal
• Charles Ponzi 1882–1949
  The 1920 Boston postal-coupon fraud that gave the Ponzi scheme its name earlier financial scandal
• Jay Gould 1836–1892
  Controlled major railroad and telegraph systems through aggressive stock manipulation. earlier speculator