The Insider-Trading Scandal That Nearly Destroyed Wall Street: U.S. Finance (1991)

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Drexel Burnham Lambert was a major Wall Street investment banking firm, which first rose to prominence and then was forced into bankruptcy in February 1990 by its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by Drexel employee Michael Milken. At its height, it was the fifth-largest investment bank in the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drexel_Burnham_Lambert Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937) is an American stock trader who is notable for his prominent role in a Wall Street insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States in the mid-1980s. The character of Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street is based at least in part on Boesky, especially regarding a famous speech he delivered on the positive aspects of greed at the University of California, Berkeley School of Business commencement ceremony in May 1986, where he said in part "I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself". In a 1993 episode of Animaniacs entitled "Plane Pals", Yakko, Wakko, and Dot harass a tightly-wound Wall Street accountant named Ivan Blowsky, when he is forced to sit next to them on an airplane. The character Charlotte, a high-stakes CEO, on Rugrats has two fish in her office named "Boesky" and "Vesco". Boesky is mentioned in the episode Last Days of the television series Sliders: after an asteroid fails to destroy the Earth of the dimension they are in, Rembrandt Brown sees an article in a newspaper stating that Boesky had bought half of the houses in Beverly Hills for $10,000 dollars apiece, and that the erstwhile owners want their houses back. In the 2001 film Ocean's Eleven, Brad Pitt's character, Rusty Ryan, mentions a type of confidence scam termed "a Boesky" that involves a wealthy bankroller with insider information. In The Shield, Vic Mackey states that there will be a "money laundering operation which would make Ivan Boesky flinch". In Season 2, Episode 3 of "Psych" ("Psy vs. Psy"), the Federal Treasury agent claims to have arrested Ivan Boesky himself. In the novel American Psycho, Craig McDermott wins a halloween costume party dressed as Ivan Boesky. In the episode of Futurama, Future Stock, an 80s Wall Street character, reminiscent of Gordon Gekko, said of his glory days: "I was having whisky with Boesky and cookies with Milken." Famous hacker Kevin Mitnick recollects his encounters with Boesky in the prison in his book Ghost in the Wires. In the musical The Wedding Singer (based on the Adam Sandler/ Drew Barrymore movie), the character Glen Guglia mentions that "Boesky bought half, and if Ivan's buying, you know it's in the money." Gump & Co., the sequel to novel Forrest Gump by Winston Groom, had the protagonist Forrest Gump being hired by "Ivan Bozosky". Gump also later begins to wonder how he is being able to command such a high salary for only having to sign papers. In Robocop The Series episode 20 Corporate Raiders, the Chairman of OCP mentions he attended the "Ivan Boesky Elementary Business School". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Boesky