In 1986, Wall Street trader Ivan Boesky pleaded guilty to insider trading and agreed to pay a $100 million fine, and his confession helped bring “Junk Bond King” Michael Milken to justice.
In the midst of the 1980s stock boom, Boesky said he used illegal inside information about impending mergers to amass a $200 million fortune.
The Securities and Exchange Commission later named the day of Boesky’s guilty plea as “Boesky Day” for the role his confession played in bringing down his co-conspirators.
In the end, Boesky served a three-year sentence and paid his fine. Milken, whose role was much larger, forked over more than $1 billion in fines and spent 10 years behind bars.
Their roles in the scandal turned Boesky and Milken into national symbols of capitalistic excess.
Following the scandal, the SEC tightened penalties for securities violations.
