Michael Milken, who faces insider trading charges, is seen as the Wall Street whiz kid who made ``junk-bond'' financing into the tool of choice for corporate raiders. In so doing, Milken, 42, transformed Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. from a minor player on Wall Street into a powerhouse and in the process made himself feared, respected and enormously wealthy. The 184-page civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York against Milken, Drexel and others on Wednesday followed months of speculation about Drexel's involvement in the Ivan Boesky insider trading scandal. Although the move by the Securities and Exchange Commission had been anticipated, Milken and others who have made fortunes in junk bonds continued to hold their annual Beverly Hills spring gathering known as the Predators' Ball. The message was clear: Never mind the burgeoning government investigation of insider trading. It was business as usual at Drexel, and Milken was still king of the junk bonds _ high-risk, high-yield notes used to finance corporate takeovers. Milken had refused to comment publicly on the scandal up until Wednesday, when he issued a written statement asserting that ``for the past 22 months I have been the subject of a shadow trial of systematic leaks and innuendo based on false accusations.'' In anticipation of a crisis, Drexel undertook a public-relations campaign starting last year to polish its image, stressing the role of junk bonds in helping small companies and downplaying their role in large takeover battles. The normally secretive and unreachable Milken himself played a major role in that blitz, accepting speaking engagements. He granted selective media interviews _ on condition there would be no questions about the Securities and Exchange Commission and the investigation. The speeches and interviews focused almost solely on Milken's latest pet plan _ to alleviate the Latin American debt crisis by swapping debt for equity or selling securities backed by those countries' oil and silver resources. In the years before the insider trading scandal, the financial media wrote glowingly of Milken. ``A one-man revolution,'' Forbes magazine headlined one typical article. ``A world-class financial wizard, on a plane with the likes of Bernard Baruch and Jay Gould ... Mozart of the money markets,'' wrote California Business magazine. It had been a relatively short road for Milken, from head cheerleader at Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley in 1964 _ actress Sally Field and superagent Michael Ovitz were among his classmates _ to the top of the nation's financial industry. Milken reportedly pulls down $40 million a year as the head of Drexel's junk-bond operation and his personal fortune has been estimated at more than $500 million. He lives with his children and wife, Lori _ his high school sweetheart whom he married at age 22 _ in a house on the former estate of the late actor Clark Gable in suburban Encino, an upper-middle-class section of the San Fernando Valley two miles from his childhood home. Milken's fascination with finance stetches back to his boyhood. At age 10, while other boys were giggling over comic books, Michael Robert Milken was enamored of money. A favorite pastime was hovering over tax returns being prepared by his father, an accountant. After studying business at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Milken went to work for Drexel Firestone &amp; Co. in Philadelphia as a junior bond trader. Drexel merged with Burnham &amp; Co. in 1973 and Lambert Brussels Witter in 1976 to become today's Drexel Burnham Lambert, and Milken's job was moved to New York. Milken worked hard to make a name for himself but never got used to the East. As the story goes, he wearied of the cold Eastern winters that froze his water pipes and kept his two children from playing outside. He also tired of the long commutes from his home in suburban Philadelphia to Wall Street. In 1977, he pulled off a coup by convincing Drexel to let him move the company's junk-bond operations from Wall Street to Beverly Hills, just off swank Rodeo Drive. His reasoning was simple: He didn't have to be sitting in a tiny office in Manhattan to make deals. He just had to know the players and have their confidence. Milken was enormously successful in that regard, almost single-handedly building a close-knit network of junk-bond investors. Milken no longer has to go on the road to make deals. The corporate players come to him. Milken still works hard _ 12 to 13 hours a day, seven days a week. He once said he had no hobbies ``because what I do is fun.'' Milken's appearance generally is described as ordinary. He buys his suits off the rack, and it was only a couple years ago that he traded in his unstylish American car for a Mercedes.
After studying business at the University of California , Berkeley , and the University of Pennsylvania 's Wharton School , Michael Milken joined Drexel Corporation & Co. in Philadelphia as a junior bond trader . Mergers made the firm into today 's Drexel Burnham Lambert . In 1977 Milken convinced Drexel to let him move the company 's junk bond operations from Wall Street to Beverly Hills , California . Working 12 - 14 hours a day seven days a week he has transformed Drexel - Lambert from a minor player on Wall Street into a powerhouse , and as head of the firm 's junk - bond operations has acquired a fortune exceeding $ 500 million . Now Milken faces charges of insider trading .