Michael R. Milken was a U. S. financier who became known in the 1980s as the "junk bond king." Milken's use of junk bonds fueled a string of mergers in the 1980s that made him and his firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert enormously wealthy. In 1986, for example, the firm made a profit of over $1 billion. The following year it paid Milken $550 million. However, Milken became involved in insider trading, which is illegal under federal securities laws. In 1990 he pleaded guilty to felony charges and was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Milken was born on July 4, 1946 in Encino, California. He graduated with a business degree from the University of California/Berkeley in 1968 and then studied at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance. While in graduate school, Milken began working at the investment firm that would eventually be known as Drexel Burnham Lambert. In 1971 he became head of...