Interviewing Michael Milken - Essay Example

He has been assessed a $200 million fine and is incarcerated for 22 months. Immediately after paying this debt, he resumed his lifelong philanthropic activities. Milken has promised that he will someday write his side of the controversy, but for now, he feels it's less productive to focus on the past than to be involved in supporting the effort to accelerate medical solutions.

Interviewer: Michael, that paragraph quoted from your website seems to imply that you don’t believe you did anything wrong, that it was all a vast conspiracy to bring you down.  Since you don’t believe what you did was wrong, could you tell us whether you would do it again provided you didn’t get caught?

MM: Ohh, that’s a loaded question. First off let me point out that I violated the law and I was fined and I was imprisoned for almost 2 years of my life. So yes, what I did violated the law. There is a wider question though, and that is, how do we define what is wrong?  And I think that’s the point being made on the website. The fact is I’m the only person in the history of that legislation to be prosecuted under it. And though I know I’m a fairly unique guy, I don’t for one minute believe that I’m the only person who has violated that legislation. When the law appears to set arbitrary limits, when it does not apply equally across the board, then we have to wonder whether that law is in the interests of the American people generally or just designed to make life easier for the special few up on Mount Olympus.

Interviewer: Michael, you were able to reinvent yourself after your incarceration. Do you think that the time you served in prison helped you ‘see the light’ as it were?

MM: Prison made no difference to me. I was a financier and a philanthropist before I went there and I’m a financier and a philanthropist now.

Interviewer: You were originally sent down for 10 years, and ended up doing 2 years plus 3 years probation. Do you think that the punishment fits the crime?

MM: I think the punishment far outweighed the crime! Not only did I spend 2 precious years of my life in the choke, and get barred for life from trading in securities but I also had to pay out $200 million in fines. And then when I came out of prison – jeesh. Let me remind you one of the points of prison is rehabilitation right? Well, I come out of prison and I’m barred from doing the only thing I’m qualified to do. No one will touch me with a barge pole – I’m an ex-criminal. I couldn’t get work sweeping streets. So I use my initiative and I set up as a strategic business consultant and BAM!!!. I get hit with another $ 42 million worth of fines. What did I do? And it’s all so pointless. The lifetime ban doesn’t prevent me from teaching other people how to do what I know how to do, it just prevents me from doing it myself. And another thing – I mean – where did that money go? How many kids were it used to educate? How many free meals did it provide? The whole thing is ridiculous. If I had a million dollars for every million the SEC took off me I’d be… Hey, I DO have a million dollars for every million the SEC took off me. So what was the point of all that?