Inside the life of Michael Milken, the pardoned former financier who made $500 million a year in the 1980s before being sent to prison by Rudy Giuliani

• President Trump pardoned Michael Milken, the “junk bond king,” on February 18.
• Milken was an innovator of the use of riskier high-yield bonds, or “junk bonds,” which paid a higher interest rate than standard investment-grade bonds because of their lower credit ratings that stemmed from a perceived higher risk.
• A superstar on Wall Street in the 1980s, Milken was indicted on charges of insider trading in 1989. He ultimately pleaded guilty to six felony charges of securities fraud and spent 22 months in prison.
• Milken became a philanthropist after his release from prison and donated money to cancer research after his own diagnosis in 1993. Even though he was given 18 months to live at the time, he made a full recovery.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

On February 18, President Donald Trump granted clemency to seven people who had been convicted of white-collar crimes and commuted the sentences of four others.

Michael Milken, a prominent philanthropist and former Wall Street financier known in the 1980s as the “junk bond king,” was among those pardoned. He spent several decades building a prominent career before he was indicted on insider-trading charges and served 22 months in prison.

Since the ’90s, Milken has donated significant amounts of money to charity. He has a net worth of $3.7 billion. Take a look inside his life.

Michael Milken was born to Jewish parents in California. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and has an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He’s married to his high-school sweetheart.

Source: Business Insider, Bloomberg

After he graduated from Wharton, Milken started working at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where his work popularizing the use of high-yield bonds — popularly known as "junk bonds" — transformed Drexel into one of the largest banks on Wall Street. Drexel filed for bankruptcy in 1990, shortly after Milken's conviction; it is now defunct.

Source: Business Insider

At Drexel Burnham, Milken provided funding to companies that had previously been unable to secure funding through standard investment-grade bonds. Neither junk bonds nor leveraged buyouts were invented in the '80s, but Milken was a key figure in expanding their use on Wall Street during the decade.

Source: The Balance, Investopedia

Milken helped provide funding to news-industry pioneers like Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, and Rupert Murdoch, the founder of News Corp. He also help Craig McCaw, a cellphone-industry entrepreneur.

Source: Business Insider

Milken also provided US Sen. Mitt Romney with $300 million in funding that he needed to launch the private-equity firm Bain Capital in the '80s.

Source: Politico

One of the many businessmen to get in on the junk-bond business in the go-go '80s was President Donald Trump, who issued almost $700 million in junk bonds with a 14% interest rate to finish construction on his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Source: New York Times

Milken's '80s-era heyday coincided with the emergence of a new breed of investors on Wall Street, many of whom are still active today, including Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman.

At one point, Milken's compensation amounted to $500 million in one year and more than $1 billion over a four-year stretch.

Source: New York Times

Milken's compensation was brought up when then-US Attorney Rudy Giuliani charged Milken with "racketeering, insider trading, and securities fraud." Milken pleaded guilty to six charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He served just short of two years and paid over $1 billion in penalties.

Source: LA Times

After Milken was released from prison, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1993 and told he had about 18 months to live.

Source: LA Times

Milken became a philanthropist after his release from prison. The Milken Family Foundation has donated more than $1 billion and raised $75 million for cancer research. Milken also launched and sits on the board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Source: Business Insider, LA Times, Forbes

After Milken was permanently barred from the securities industry in 1991, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of violating his lifetime ban, alleging he offered advice to Murdoch and Perelman. Milken settled the SEC complaint for $47 million in 1998; no new criminal charges were brought against him.

Source: New York Times

Milken sought a pardon from President Bill Clinton before he left office in 2001, but the move faced strong opposition from law enforcement and was ultimately unsuccessful.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Trump granted Milken clemency on Tuesday. A statement from the White House press secretary highlighted his work as a philanthropist and said he was a major influence on industries such as wireless communications, telecommunications, and homebuilding.

Source: Whitehouse.gov

The press release also named the people who supported his clemency, including some familiar figures from his career: Murdoch and, most surprisingly, Giuliani, the man who brought the charges against him in 1989.

Source: Whitehouse.gov

Milken said of his pardon, "Lori and I, who recently celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary, along with our children and grandchildren, are very grateful to the President. We look forward to many more years of pursuing our efforts in medical research, education and public health."

Source: mikemilken.com