Michael Milken

Michael Milken, investment dealer, was born on July 4, 1946, in Encino, California.

He was the controversial financial innovator whose work at Investment Banker's Drexel Burnham Lambert during the 1980s greatly expanded the use of high yield debt, otherwise known as junk bonds in corporate finance and acquisitions.

Although earning an annual salary in excess of $550 million per year, in 1989 he was charged by New York District Attorney, Rudolph Giuliani with 98 counts of racketeering and fraud. Indicted by a federal grand jury, Michael Milken pleaded guilty to six felony counts of securities fraud, resulting in a lifetime ban from the securities industry, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison - a term later reduced to two years.

Since his conviction Milkin has focused his professional life on charitable works and education-related companies plus cancer research as a result of his being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1993. Trying to rehabilitate himself, Milken has used his personal fortune and high-level contacts to become an influential voice in economics, education and medical research. Some of the very powerful business leaders, including Ted Turner and News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, are today counted amongst his supporters. Directors of his nonprofit foundations include former Intel Corp. Chairman, Andrew Grove and retired U.S. Army General, Norman Schwarzkopf.

The story of Michael Milken and others around him involved in massive corporate corruption was documented in James B. Stewart's 1991 book titled "Den of Thieves".