Highly Confident

Fülszöveg

I : I I 1 ll I
ISBN 0-688-10937-3
FPT $23.00
i i' , ! !
At 5:30 in the morning in Beverly Hills, the phone rings at Drexel Burnham Lambert. It's Ivan Boesky, the celebrated New York arbitrageur, calling Michael Milken, the most powerful financier in America. "Good afternoon," says Milken, giving Boesky his standard pre-dawn greeting, unaware that his client is now a government agent.
MGHLYCONHDENT
The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken
JESSE KORNBLUTH
The story of the biggest manhunt in Wall Street history begins with this electrifying phone call, recorded by federal investigators and reproduced here for the first time. And from that moment, we see far beyond the Michael Milken cliché: junk bond king, Ivan Boesky's co-conspirator, notorious for his twelve-hour work days and $550 million salary. What emerges instead is a reality that will stun even those who have read all the articles and books this epic has spawned. Among the surprises:
• The only psychologist ever to... Tovább

Fülszöveg

I : I I 1 ll I
ISBN 0-688-10937-3
FPT $23.00
i i' , ! !
At 5:30 in the morning in Beverly Hills, the phone rings at Drexel Burnham Lambert. It's Ivan Boesky, the celebrated New York arbitrageur, calling Michael Milken, the most powerful financier in America. "Good afternoon," says Milken, giving Boesky his standard pre-dawn greeting, unaware that his client is now a government agent.
MGHLYCONHDENT
The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken
JESSE KORNBLUTH
The story of the biggest manhunt in Wall Street history begins with this electrifying phone call, recorded by federal investigators and reproduced here for the first time. And from that moment, we see far beyond the Michael Milken cliché: junk bond king, Ivan Boesky's co-conspirator, notorious for his twelve-hour work days and $550 million salary. What emerges instead is a reality that will stun even those who have read all the articles and books this epic has spawned. Among the surprises:
• The only psychologist ever to interview Milken: "His life is all transactions. If there's no disaster, he'll develop clinical symptoms."
• Milken's probation officer, in a report that others in the government allegedly tried to get her to change: "His wealth is the result of legitimate business activities."
• Edward Bennett Williams, the lawyer Milken hoped would save him: "Some guys can't see the forest for the trees. This guy can't see beyond the moss on the bark."
• Milken's wife, after reading that he was making $ 15 million a year: "It doesn't look good. Get rid of it."
• Milken himself, explaining why he crossed the line with Boesky: "I believed so much in what I was doing, and that it was right and just____1 concen-
(continued on back flap)
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(continued from front flap)
trated on what I wanted to do, and thought, 'Okay, if you want to make money, I'll find you money.'"
This is a book of nonstop revelations —from Milken's actual income of $714 million in his best year to shocking accounts of Boesky's life in prison. It is the first to deal not just with transactions and indictments, but personalities and private moments. "Highly confident" was not just a phrase used by Drexel bankets—here, we find prosecutors conducting their investigations with one eye on justice and the other on the headlines, investment bankers using money and delay to blunt the government attack, defense lawyers jockeying for position and reputation.
Drawing on never-before-seen documents and the first no-holds-barred jailhouse interviews with Milken himself, Highly Confident is more than the authoritative story of Michael Milken and the prosecution that brought him down—it's a fast-paced real-life thriller that will, for the first time, put you in the room with the most controversial figure of the 1980s.
V I ' i' I V
Jesse Kornbluth, a contributing editor of Vanity Fair, is known for profiles that are concise portraits of character in action. His previous books include Notes from the New Underground, The Other Guy Blinked (with Roger Enrico), and Pre-Pop Warhol. For a decade, he taught screenwriting at New York University. He lives in New York City.
Jacket design by Neil Stuart Front jacket photograph copyright © by Roger Sandler/ The Picture Group
William Morrow & Company, Inc.
1350 Avenue of the Americas NewYork, N.Y 10019
Printed in U.S.A.
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