Michael Milken

The David Rubenstein Show · Nov 1, 2018 · 23m · transcript

There is no one more closely associated with junk bonds than Michael Milken, who, in the 1970s, realized that investors could make more money buying bonds from companies with lower credit ratings than they could from companies with triple-A rated bonds. However, the same competitive nature that made Milken millions ended up hurting him. In 1990, Milken pled guilty to six counts of violating securities law, spent one year and ten months in prison, and paid a government fine of $200 million and put an additional $400 million in a fund to compensate investors. Both before and after his…