Michael Milken: Financier and Chairman of the Milken Institute
Business Owner · Financial Services
Michael Milken built the junk bond market at Drexel Burnham Lambert, pleaded guilty to securities violations in 1990 and was pardoned in 2020, and now funds medical research through the Milken Institute.
About Michael Milken: Financier and Chairman of the Milken Institute
Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier known for developing the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), earning him the name the "Junk Bond King", and for his conviction and sentence after a guilty plea on felony charges of violating US securities laws. His compensation as head of the high-yield bond department at Drexel Burnham Lambert in the late 1980s exceeded $1 billion over a four-year period, a record for US income at that time. Milken was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud in 1989 in an insider trading investigation. In a plea bargain he pleaded guilty to securities and reporting violations but not to racketeering or insider trading, and was sentenced to ten years in prison, fined $600 million (though his personal website claims $200 million) and permanently barred from the securities industry by the SEC. His sentence was later reduced to two years for cooperating with testimony against former colleagues and for good behavior. President Donald Trump pardoned him in February 2020. Milken is a co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation, chairman of the Milken Institute, and founder of medical philanthropies funding research on melanoma, cancer and other life-threatening diseases. A prostate cancer survivor, he has devoted much of his time to medical philanthropy. Sources: English Wikipedia (Michael Milken, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Chairman, Milken Institute; co-founder, Milken Family Foundation; financier
Company Details
Milken Institute / Milken Family Foundation
Finance, Philanthropy, Medical Research
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