Word: milken
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even for a billionaire, the $600 million penalty that junk-bond king Michael Milken has agreed to pay is a breathtaking sum. Milken will be forfeiting more money than any other felon in history. By another measure, the penalty is even larger than Union Carbide's $470 million settlement offer for the Bhopal disaster. Yet Milken's fortune, which has been estimated at $1.2 billion, is by no means wiped out. The frugal financier, who invested his monumental income instead of spending it, possesses an intricate web of assets that have been well sheltered from taxes and prying eyes...
...workaholic Milken, 43, power is more precious than money, so his prison term is the real penalty. By pleading guilty to six counts of securities fraud (reduced from 98 criminal charges in the original indictment), Milken faces as much as 28 years behind bars. But oddsmakers bet that when Milken is sentenced in October he will get five years and serve less than that...
When he gets out, Milken can go back to tending a world-class fortune that began with a $25,000 salary when he joined Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1970. While he was head of Drexel's junk-bond department, his compensation zoomed from $45.7 million in 1983 to more than $550 million in 1987, the highest annual paycheck in corporate history. All told, he earned $1.1 billion during those golden years...
...Milken did not fritter money away on Gulfstreams and private islands as most tycoons do. He formed partnerships to invest in everything from furriers to California real estate. His family's holdings include the five-story building that housed Drexel's Beverly Hills offices, along with several adjacent structures. (Milken picked up extra cash by renting the buildings to Drexel for about $11.2 million from 1984 to 1988.) The complex at Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive now has an estimated value of roughly $85 million...
Another gauge of Milken's wealth is the Foundation of the Milken Families, a group of four charitable funds. With total assets of about $350 million, the foundation has dispensed $45 million in donations. Among Milken's favorite charities: the United Way of Los Angeles and the University of Pennsylvania, where Milken attended the Wharton School...