This post is part of a feature in which he wonder whatever happened to some notorious financial felons. See all 17.

Mike Milken turned the market for bonds issued by less creditworthy companies into a gold mine for himself and his firm, Drexel Burnham. As I posted, this did not end well. But in the past several years, Milken has worked hard to rehabiliate his reputation -- putting money into prostate cancer research and talking about the economy.

Who is Milken and how did he get here? Mike Milken was an academic star. He used to take the bus back and forth to classes at Wharton and came in to school before dawn with a miner's hat on his head because the bright light helped him read annual reports. Milken and I studied with the same management professor at Wharton.

That professor predicted that Milken would either make a huge amount of money or go to jail. He did both -- eventually agreeing to pay $650 million in fines and plead nolo contendere to six felonies -- three counts of stock parking and three counts of stock manipulation. Milken went to jail from March 1991 until January 1993. But that's ancient history. Where is he now?

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Financial Felons: Mike Milken originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.