Home >
Galleries > Wrestling with Reform: Financi... > The Case Against Boesky
Wrestling with Reform: Financial Scandals and the Legislation They Inspired
Manipulating Markets, Making Law: ITSFEA of 1988
The Case Against Boesky
- July 10, 1985 Inscription to Dennis Levine from Ivan Boesky, within a copy of “Merger Mania”
Concern about insider trading dominated the early 1980s. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Supreme Court sparred over how to rein it in. The Court’s decisions in Chiarella v. United States and Dirks v. SEC raised questions about what defined insider trading and limited SEC authority over it. The Insider Trading Sanctions Act of 1984 sought to clarify the law and further empowered the SEC, providing for triple damages and raising the maximum criminal fine to $100,000. It did not, however, define insider trading; the SEC believed that doing so would invite crafty traders to exploit loopholes.
A year later, the SEC and U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani began pulling threads from a tangle of fraud and insider trading. A tipster fingered Dennis Levine, architect of a $12 million insider trading ring. Levine’s cooperation led authorities to Ivan Boesky, one of Wall Street’s leading arbitrageurs. Boesky had worked his way up from Wall Street trainee to running his own firm. He was in good position to extract profits from the 1980s takeover boom through corruption and collusion, by using insider information to time trades and by working with investors to manipulate the market. Boesky eventually received $3 billion in financial leverage from Michael Milken. Together, Boesky and Milken committed infractions ranging from 13-D violations to conspiracy and market manipulation. (26)
As investigators closed in, Boesky cut a deal, accepting a $100 million fine and turning government witness. Boesky tutored investigators in takeover bids, stock manipulations, and corporate raids. He also recorded calls and meetings with associates, most importantly an October 1986 conversation with Michael Milken which provided proof of their illegal arrangements. On November 14, after two months of undercover work, the government revealed its case against Ivan Boesky.
<<Previous Next>>
Related Museum Resources
Papers
- September 17, 1986
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 23, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 23, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 23, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- May 1, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- May 24, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- June 4, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- June 4, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- June 11, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- June 15, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- June 17, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- June 25, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- July 23, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- September 15, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- September 16, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- September 17, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- September 25, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- September 28, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- September 28, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 1, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 1, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 4, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 5, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 6, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 7, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 8, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 9, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 12, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 12, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 13, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 14, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 14, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 15, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- October 21, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- November 2, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- November 3, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- November 12, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- November 16, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- November 18, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 3, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 11, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 11, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 11, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 14, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 14, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 15, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 16, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 16, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 17, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 18, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 18, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 18, 1987
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- December 18, 1987
-
transcript
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 15, 1988
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 15, 1988
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 22, 1988
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 12, 1989
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 12, 1989
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 13, 1989
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 13, 1989
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- April 27, 1989
-
image
pdf
(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration)
- September 13, 2004
-
image
pdf
- August 11, 2006
-
document
pdf
(prepared for the museum by Stuart J. Kaswell)
Oral Histories
19 July 2006
Gary Lynch
With Dr. Kenneth Durr
-
17 November 2009
Robert Marchman
With Dr. Kenneth Durr
-
05 March 2012
William McLucas
With Dr. James Stocker
-
Bill McLucas served at the SEC for 21 years, the last 9 as director of the Division of Enforcement. He started as a staff attorney in 1977 and became branch chief under Stanley Sporkin. He then rose through the ranks in the Enforcement Division as assistant director, associate director, and became director of the Division in 1989. In his oral history interview, he discusses what it was like to serve under directors Sporkin and Fedders, and for five SEC Chairmen as division director, and how the SEC’s enforcement program evolved over his time at the SEC, and since his departure from the agency in 1998. Mr. McLucas was a founding trustee of the SEC Historical Society.
14 July 2006
John Sturc
With Dr. Kenneth Durr
-
Galleries
- Fair To All People: The SEC and the Regulation of Insider Trading
-
- Chasing the Devil Around the Stump: Securities Regulation, the SEC and the Courts
-
<<Previous Next>>
