Dennis Levine: Difference between revisions
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'''Dennis Levine''' (born |
'''Dennis Levine''' (born 1952), one of Wall Street's top deal makers, was a prominent player in the [[Wall Street]] [[insider trading]] scandals of the mid-1980s. <ref name="newsweek-greed">{{citeweb | publisher=Newsweek | date=1986-05-26 | url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9926616/site/newsweek/ | title=Greed on Wall Street | accessdate = 2007-08-22}}</ref> As a managing director at [[Drexel Burnham Lambert]], Levine worked very closely with [[Michael Milken]] engineering some of the most complex transactions of the 80s. In May 1986, however, Levine was charged with insider trading by then U.S Attorney [[Rudy Giuliani]] and his career came crashing down. |
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Levine grew up in a middle-class family in [[Bayside, Queens|Bayside]] in eastern [[Queens]]. He graduated from [[Baruch College]], obtaining an [[MBA]] from the same school in |
Levine grew up in a middle-class family in [[Bayside, Queens|Bayside]] in eastern [[Queens]]. He graduated from [[Baruch College]], obtaining an [[MBA]] from the same school in 1976. After a brief stint at [[Citibank]], he joined [[Smith Barney]] in 1978, moving to [[Lehman Brothers]] in 1981. Shortly after Lehman was bought by [[American Express]] in 1985, he moved to Drexel as their senior deal maker. |
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Few individuals have impacted the business world like Dennis Levine. For over three decades, Levine has led innovation in the financial services industry – devising |
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Levine spent most of his career as a specialist in [[mergers and acquisitions]]. While he was a good researcher with a voracious appetite for information, his math skills were marginal at best. He masked this shortcoming by gathering and trading on non-public information.<ref name="Den">[[James B. Stewart|Stewart, James B.]] [[Den of Thieves]]. New York: [[Simon & Schuster]], 1991. ISBN 0-671-63802-5.</ref> |
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everything from intricate multi-billion dollar takeovers to business structures uniquely tuned to today’s digital marketplace and media/technology convergence. While at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Lehman Brothers, Levine created many of the industry’s pioneering approaches to M&A services, orchestrating some of the most complicated, ground-breaking, multi-billion dollar transactions of the era. |
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Paralleling his meteoric rise on Wall Street, Levine's alleged insider trading started early in his career. After briefly doing business with Pictet & Cie., he moved his business to [[Bank Leu]] later in 1981, eventually earning $10.6 million in trading profits. Levine believed he was safe from detection. Like most Swiss banks, Bank Leu had a long tradition of [[bank secrecy|secrecy]]. Also, the Bahamas had some of the strictest bank secrecy laws in the world. |
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Bank Leu officials soon realized that Levine was trading almost entirely on inside information. In order to get a piece of the action for themselves, some of them copied, or "piggybacked," his trades for their own accounts. They also broke up his trades through several brokers. Unfortunately for Levine, they steered a large number of his trades through a broker at [[Merrill Lynch]], who began piggybacking the trades for himself. |
Bank Leu officials soon realized that Levine was trading almost entirely on inside information. In order to get a piece of the action for themselves, some of them copied, or "piggybacked," his trades for their own accounts. They also broke up his trades through several brokers. Unfortunately for Levine, they steered a large number of his trades through a broker at [[Merrill Lynch]], who began piggybacking the trades for himself. |
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In May 1985, Merrill Lynch detected suspicious activity in that and two other brokers' personal trading accounts. An internal investigation led to Bank Leu. Unable to pierce the veil of secrecy, Merrill Lynch forwarded the affair to the [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] (SEC). Bank officials suggested that Levine come up with reasons to justify the trades. However, they also forged or destroyed many documents related to Levine's activity--thus opening them to charges of [[obstruction of justice]]. |
In May 1985, Merrill Lynch detected suspicious activity in that and two other brokers' personal trading accounts. An internal investigation led to Bank Leu. Unable to pierce the veil of secrecy, Merrill Lynch forwarded the affair to the [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] (SEC). Bank officials suggested that Levine come up with reasons to justify the trades. However, they also forged or destroyed many documents related to Levine's activity--thus opening them to charges of [[obstruction of justice]]. Eventually, the bank decided to cooperate with the SEC. |
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Faced with overwhelming evidence (including records of his calls) provided to the SEC by Bank Leu, Levine pleaded guilty to a series of charges related to insider trading. He also settled an insider trading suit by the SEC, agreeing to forfeit all his trading profits. |
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Bahamian Attorney General [[Paul Adderly]] issued an opinion that stock trading was separate from normal banking transactions, and thus was not subject to the bank secrecy laws. The bank was thus free to reveal Levine's name, and he was arrested soon afterward.<ref name="Den"/> |
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| ⚫ | The SEC and the US Attorney's office conducted investigations that soon extended well beyond Levine's insider trading ring. There seemed to be an entire web of relationships among Wall Street professionals exchanging information and other favors, including the parking of stock, the accumulation of stock to pressure a firms' management, and stock price manipulation. Well known market participants were soon caught up in the investigations, including investment banker [[Martin Siegel]] of [[Paine Webber|Kidder Peabody]], [[arbitrage]]ur [[Robert Freeman (business)|Robert Freeman]] of [[Goldman Sachs]] and arbitrageur [[Ivan Boesky]]. The investigations indirectly also led to [[Michael Milken]], who was highly influential in the [[junk bond]] market at the time. |
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Faced with overwhelming evidence (including records of his calls), Levine pleaded guilty to securities fraud, obstructing justice, tax evasion and an unrelated charge of perjury. His cooperation with prosecutors led to a lenient sentence by U.S. District Judge Gerard Goettel of two years in prison and a $362,000 fine.<ref name="time-pinstripes">{{citeweb | publisher=Time Magazine | date=1987-03-02 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963643,00.html | title=From Pinstripes to Prison Stripes | accessdate = 2007-08-22}} </ref> He also settled an insider trading suit by the SEC, agreeing to forfeit his illegal profits. He is banned from the securities industry for life. |
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Eventually, Levine returned to the finance world as president of ADASAR Group, a financial consulting firm. In his role as financial strategist and business catalyst, Levine helps companies develop competitive business models while forging meaningful strategic relationships through his unparalleled access and know-how. With a worldwide network of relationships, Adasar Group provides clients with creative solutions and advice that directly impacts their business and corporate value. http://www.seouldigitalforum.org/en/customerservice/search.sdf?allSearchWord=deploy . In 1991, he wrote a book about his experiences, ''Inside Out,'' one of the definitive books on Wall Street greed and excess during the 1980s. Continuing his tradition of helping to guide young professionals, Levine lectures throughout the world at universities and organizations on a host of contemporary issues from business ethics to emerging technology trends. |
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| ⚫ | The SEC and the US Attorney's office conducted investigations that soon extended well beyond Levine's insider trading ring. There seemed to be an entire web of relationships among Wall Street professionals exchanging information and other favors, including the parking of stock, the accumulation of stock to pressure a firms' management, and stock price manipulation. Well known market participants were soon caught up in the investigations, including investment banker [[Martin Siegel]] of [[Kidder Peabody]], [[arbitrage]]ur [[Robert Freeman (business)|Robert Freeman]] of [[Goldman Sachs]] and arbitrageur [[Ivan Boesky]]. The investigations also led to [[Michael Milken]], who was highly influential in the [[junk bond]] market at the time. |
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After his release from prison, Levine returned to the finance world as president of ADASAR Group, a financial consulting firm. In 1991, he wrote a book about his experiences, ''Inside Out.'' He claimed that his willingness to plunge into insider trading came from not hearing anything about morals and ethics in his classes at Baruch. He claimed that he could have contested the government's case against him on the basis that it circumvented Bahamian law in order to obtain most of the evidence against him. However, he said, the possibility of additional charges--possibly including the powerful [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]]--led him to conclude that this was a battle he couldn't win. He also said that while working at Smith Barney's offices in [[Paris]] in the late 1970s, he noticed that insider trading and the use of [[offshore bank]] accounts was very common among European businessmen.<ref>Levine, Dennis; with William Hofer. ''Inside Out''. New York: [[G.P. Putnam's Sons]], 1991. ISBN 0-399-13655-X</ref> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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[[Category:Stock and commodity market managers]] |
[[Category:Stock and commodity market managers]] |
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[[Category:American criminals]] |
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[[Category:American fraudsters]] |
[[Category:American fraudsters]] |
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[[Category:American perjurors]] |
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[[Category:American tax evaders]] |
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[[Category:People from Queens]] |
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[[Category:1952 births]] |
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[[Category:Living people]] |
[[Category:Living people]] |
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[[Category:City University of New York people]] |
[[Category:City University of New York people]] |
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Revision as of 03:20, 16 May 2009
Dennis Levine (born 1952), one of Wall Street's top deal makers, was a prominent player in the Wall Street insider trading scandals of the mid-1980s. [1] As a managing director at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Levine worked very closely with Michael Milken engineering some of the most complex transactions of the 80s. In May 1986, however, Levine was charged with insider trading by then U.S Attorney Rudy Giuliani and his career came crashing down.
Levine grew up in a middle-class family in Bayside in eastern Queens. He graduated from Baruch College, obtaining an MBA from the same school in 1976. After a brief stint at Citibank, he joined Smith Barney in 1978, moving to Lehman Brothers in 1981. Shortly after Lehman was bought by American Express in 1985, he moved to Drexel as their senior deal maker.
Few individuals have impacted the business world like Dennis Levine. For over three decades, Levine has led innovation in the financial services industry – devising everything from intricate multi-billion dollar takeovers to business structures uniquely tuned to today’s digital marketplace and media/technology convergence. While at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Lehman Brothers, Levine created many of the industry’s pioneering approaches to M&A services, orchestrating some of the most complicated, ground-breaking, multi-billion dollar transactions of the era.
Paralleling his meteoric rise on Wall Street, Levine's alleged insider trading started early in his career. After briefly doing business with Pictet & Cie., he moved his business to Bank Leu later in 1981, eventually earning $10.6 million in trading profits. Levine believed he was safe from detection. Like most Swiss banks, Bank Leu had a long tradition of secrecy. Also, the Bahamas had some of the strictest bank secrecy laws in the world.
Bank Leu officials soon realized that Levine was trading almost entirely on inside information. In order to get a piece of the action for themselves, some of them copied, or "piggybacked," his trades for their own accounts. They also broke up his trades through several brokers. Unfortunately for Levine, they steered a large number of his trades through a broker at Merrill Lynch, who began piggybacking the trades for himself.
In May 1985, Merrill Lynch detected suspicious activity in that and two other brokers' personal trading accounts. An internal investigation led to Bank Leu. Unable to pierce the veil of secrecy, Merrill Lynch forwarded the affair to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Bank officials suggested that Levine come up with reasons to justify the trades. However, they also forged or destroyed many documents related to Levine's activity--thus opening them to charges of obstruction of justice. Eventually, the bank decided to cooperate with the SEC.
Faced with overwhelming evidence (including records of his calls) provided to the SEC by Bank Leu, Levine pleaded guilty to a series of charges related to insider trading. He also settled an insider trading suit by the SEC, agreeing to forfeit all his trading profits.
The SEC and the US Attorney's office conducted investigations that soon extended well beyond Levine's insider trading ring. There seemed to be an entire web of relationships among Wall Street professionals exchanging information and other favors, including the parking of stock, the accumulation of stock to pressure a firms' management, and stock price manipulation. Well known market participants were soon caught up in the investigations, including investment banker Martin Siegel of Kidder Peabody, arbitrageur Robert Freeman of Goldman Sachs and arbitrageur Ivan Boesky. The investigations indirectly also led to Michael Milken, who was highly influential in the junk bond market at the time.
Eventually, Levine returned to the finance world as president of ADASAR Group, a financial consulting firm. In his role as financial strategist and business catalyst, Levine helps companies develop competitive business models while forging meaningful strategic relationships through his unparalleled access and know-how. With a worldwide network of relationships, Adasar Group provides clients with creative solutions and advice that directly impacts their business and corporate value. http://www.seouldigitalforum.org/en/customerservice/search.sdf?allSearchWord=deploy . In 1991, he wrote a book about his experiences, Inside Out, one of the definitive books on Wall Street greed and excess during the 1980s. Continuing his tradition of helping to guide young professionals, Levine lectures throughout the world at universities and organizations on a host of contemporary issues from business ethics to emerging technology trends.
See also
References
- ^ "Greed on Wall Street". Newsweek. 1986-05-26. Retrieved 2007-08-22.