Former Drexel Burnham Lambert junk-bond king Michael Milken, who came to embody Wall Street excesses during the booming 1980s, has been released to a halfway house after serving 22 months in prison for securities fraud, authorities said Monday.
Milken, 46, left the minimum-security Federal Prison Work Camp at Pleasanton, Calif., early Sunday with a requirement that he report to an undisclosed Los Angeles halfway house, prison administrator Kathy Morse told Reuters.The release was carried out quietly without the presence of news media one day earlier than officials had announced.
Milken will have to observe a strict 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. curfew until his final release March 2. He will be allowed to leave during the day to perform community service ordered under his sentence, authorities said.
Officials said Milken, who paid $1.1 billion in fines and settlements but is still estimated to have a $500 million net worth, would be given the same treatment as other halfway house inmates - follow the rules or else be sent back to prison.
"My current plans are to comply with my obligations to the halfway house and to the court," Milken said in a statement. "I will again involve myself in community activities that I care about."
"The past six years have been very difficult," he said. "I obviously have seen great changes in my life, and as this next chapter beings, I will do my best to make a worthwhile contibution to the community."
Lorraine Spurge, Milken's friend and former aide at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., said Milken may offer to help rebuild Los Angeles following last spring's riots.
Famed for his ability to raise billions of dollars for takeover bids during the 1980s, Milken has been barred by the Securities and Exchange Commission from ever working again in the securities industry.
But his sentence calls for him to begin serving 1,800 hours of unspecified community service for each of the next three years.