First published 2012
Wall Street's most powerful financiers believed they were untouchable. Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine built an elaborate insider trading network that generated billions in illegal profits throughout the 1980s. These titans of finance traded on confidential information, manipulated markets, and corrupted the system from within. But their empire began to crumble when federal investigators picked up the trail. A determined team of prosecutors and detectives worked to penetrate the web of secrecy protecting these men. They faced armies of expensive defense lawyers and the full weight of Wall Street's influence. Stewart reconstructs this financial crime saga using grand jury transcripts, trading records, and extensive interviews. The book reveals how greed consumed some of America's most successful businessmen and how justice eventually caught up with them. This account exposes the human cost of unchecked ambition in high finance.
Genres: 20th-century, business, crime, non-fiction, 21st-century, finance
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: corruption, true-crime
Setting: Wall Street
Period: 1980s
592 pages · Kindle Edition · Simon Schuster