SEC Snafu Leads to Lifting of Lifetime Securities Ban on Key Figure in Drexel Burnham Scandal – The Messenger

Could one of the central figures from one of history’s biggest insider-trading scandals be poised for a comeback?

Because of a bureaucratic snafu, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week quietly dismissed 42 pending enforcement cases in which the commission’s staff had improper access to materials intended for more senior officials.

Among them: One involving Dennis B. Levine, a central figure in the 1980s insider-trading scandal that hit so-called junk-bond king Michael Milken (and later significant philanthropist), bond-firm powerhouse Drexel Burnham Lambert and arbitrageur Ivan Boesky. Close readers of insider-trading history – or Wall Street executives with long memories – may remember the colorful role of Levine, a youthful Drexel banker with a red Ferrari Testarossa, a house in the Hamptons and other Wall Street status trophies.

Source: SEC Snafu Leads to Lifting of Lifetime Securities Ban on Key Figure in Drexel Burnham Scandal – The Messenger