ABSTRACT

In March 1989, Michael R. Milken was indicted on charges of racketeering, securities fraud, and mail fraud. Known on Wall Street as the "junk bond king," Milken had made a meteoric rise from relative obscurity and modest means to become one of the richest men in the world. During 1987 alone, he received compensation of $550 million from Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., where he was head of the high-yield bond department. And during the four-year period from 1984 through 1987, he received a total compensation of $1 billion. His indictment, and the revelation of his massive income based on fees earned from engineering leveraged buyouts of some of the best-known and revered American corporations, has reverberated and occasioned soul searching far beyond the confines of Wall Street.