One of the happiest looking of Wall Street wheeler-dealers was Ivan Boesky, a specialist in corporate arbitrage.
No wonder he looked happy. His abilities gained him wealth said to be in the neighborhood of $200 million before he came under active suspicion for insider trading.
Perhaps Boesky's intelligence skills had been honed during his time working for the CIA, but his law degree should have caused him to be more subtle in his timing. Eventually, his big stock buys just prior to takeover announcements attracted the kind of attention insider traders don't want.
He worked out a plea bargain by informing against other corporate rascals, was fined $110, and got only three and a half years. Two years later, he was a free man again.
It is said that he was the primary model for the "Greed is good" character Gordon Gekko played so well by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film "Wall Street."
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