Before You Invest Your Money

The hammer finally came down on Ivan Boesky on this day in 1987, as Federal Judge Morris E. Lasker sentenced the once-mighty arbitrageur to a three-year prison term. Boesky, who had been one of the wealthiest and most-powerful players on Wall Street, was found guilty of insider trading, as well as a series of sizable but shady transactions — crimes that constituted what The Wall Street Journal deemed the “largest scandal in Wall Street’s history.” While Lasker chided Boesky for committing offenses “of the highest seriousness,” the arbitrageur cushioned his fall by agreeing to implicate other firms and figures suspected of securities crimes.