Martin A. Siegel (born 1948) is an American former

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

er who was convicted, along with

Ivan Boesky Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937) is a former American stock trader who became infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States during the mid-1980s. He was charged and pled guilty to insid ...

and

Michael Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony charges for vio ...

, for

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

during the 1980s.

Biography

Born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, Siegel is a graduate of

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. In 1971, he joined Kidder, Peabody & Co. and, during his 15 years at the firm, became known as a

takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

specialist. In February 1986, he left Kidder to become a managing director at

Drexel Burnham Lambert Drexel Burnham Lambert was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, it was a ...

. On February 13, 1987, Siegel pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the securities laws and one count of tax evasion. His guilty plea included an agreement to pay over

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

9 million in

civil penalties A civil penalty or civil fine is a financial penalty imposed by a government agency as restitution for wrongdoing. The wrongdoing is typically defined by a Codification (law), codification of legislation, regulations, and decrees. The civil fine ...

and forfeit $10 million more in bonuses and stock owed to him by Drexel—a sum many times greater than the illegal gains from his relationship with Boesky. He received a sentence of two months' imprisonment and five years' probation, rather than ten years, with 3,000 hours of community service. The sentence was light because of his cooperation with other government investigations. His involvement in criminal activities is recounted in the book '' Den of Thieves'' by

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning author

James B. Stewart James Bennett Stewart (born c. 1952) is an American lawyer, journalist, and author. Early life and education Stewart was born in Quincy, Illinois. He graduated from DePauw University and Harvard Law School. Career He is a member of the Bar o ...

References

External links

"A Raid on Wall Street" Time magazine article describing Martin Siegel's involvement in the insider trading scandals of the 1980s

''Taking America: How We Got from the First Hostile Takeover to Megamergers, Corporate Raiding, and Scandal''
by

Jeff Madrick Jeffrey G. Madrick is a journalist, economic policy consultant and analyst. He is editor of '' Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs,'' visiting professor of humanities at The Cooper Union, and director of policy research at the Schwartz Cen ...

, Beard Books, 2003. Retrieved March 10, 2019. 1948 births Living people 20th-century American Jews American fraudsters American people convicted of tax crimes Harvard Business School alumni American financiers 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews {{US-business-bio-1940s-stub