Ivan F. Boesky, Rogue Trader in 1980s Wall Street Scandal, Dies at 87
Ivan F. Boesky, Rogue Trader in 1980s Wall Street Scandal, Dies at 87
An inspiration for the Gordon Gekko character in the movie “Wall Street,” he made a fortune from insider trading before his downfall brought a crashing end to a decade of greed.
At the top of his game in the mid-1980s, he had a net worth of $280 million (about $818 million in today’s currency) and a trading portfolio valued at $3 billion (about $8.7 billion today), much of it financed with borrowed money. Home was a sprawling estate in Westchester County, N.Y., its main house adorned with a Renoir and carpets embossed with his monogram, “IFB.” (The estate was once owned by the Revson family, founders of Revlon cosmetics and, before that, the family behind Macy’s, the Strauses.)
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Mr. Boesky claimed to sleep only two to three hours a night, rising at 4:30 a.m. to work out before taking a limousine to his New York office, where he stood command over an array of video terminals, news wires and stock tickers, as well as 160 telephone lines and a set of screens allowing him to see and hear his employees at all times. Each day he dressed the same way: in a signature three-piece black suit and starched white shirt, with a gold chain dangling from his vest pocket. He preferred to stand all day than to sit, and he barely ate, consuming vast amounts of coffee instead.
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But by 1986 Mr. Boesky’s world had begun to unravel. In May, when a lower-level Drexel banker, Dennis Levine, was indicted on insider trading charges, federal prosecutors found Mr. Boesky’s name in his notes; he had been paying Mr. Levine for tips. Hot on Mr. Boesky’s trail was Rudolph W. Giuliani, the United States attorney who had been bringing down Mafia dons and crooked politicians and was now focused on Wall Street malfeasance.
In September 1986, Mr. Boesky was invited to one of the most lavish bar mitzvahs in memory. Gerald Guterman, a real estate developer, paid nearly $1 million to rent the entire Queen Elizabeth 2 to celebrate his son, taking guests on a cruise up the Hudson River and out into the Atlantic. Huge banners, clowns, musicians and a crew of 1,000 greeted the guests. But Mr. Boesky was nowhere to be seen.
Claiming he had missed the sailing, Mr. Boesky staged his arrival: A helicopter descended from the sky and landed on the ship. As its blades whirred, guests craned their necks to watch as Mr. Boesky emerged in a tuxedo and black tie, by all accounts looking like a latter-day James Bond and completely upstaging the host family.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/business/ivan-f-boesky-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.tk0.Hjgn.psdnAUHwa1-2&smid=url-share
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