Columbia Savings &amp; Loan Association has filed a $6 billion civil lawsuit accusing Michael Milken and other former Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. officials of fraudulently peddling junk bonds in the 1980s. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the failing savings and loan, claims that Milken and others manipulated and coerced Columbia and other thrifts into buying billions of dollars worth of the risky high-yield bonds. ``Absent such deceit and manipulations it would have been clear that the market for junk bonds was highly illiquid and that junk bonds were unsuitable investments for savings and loan institutions,'' the suit says. Columbia once was a major Drexel customer. It holds a junk bond portfolio with a face value of over $4 billion, the largest of any thrift. Milken had a close business relationship with former Columbia chairman Thomas Spiegel, who resigned last year. Milken, the former head of Drexel's Beverly Hills, Calif.-based junk bond department, was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison for six felonies related to illegal trading practices. None of the charges involved junk bonds. The lawsuit by Columbia, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, names Milken, nine other Drexel officials and more than 100 investment partnerships sponsored by the collapsed Wall Street firm. It alleges that the thrift lost more than $2 billion on investments in junk bonds and seeks three times that amount under federal racketeering and antitrust laws. Columbia, based in Beverly Hills, said in the lawsuit that Milken and other Drexel officials manipulated, coerced and deceived the thrift by promising that the market for the bonds would remain active and the thrift would make money. In a statement, a spokesman for Milken said the lawsuit was without merit. The statement said Columbia was an independent institution that made its own investment decisions, often in disagreement with Milken. ``It is outrageous now to blame Michael Milken for losses as a result of strategies and decisions that were implemented long after he was no longer active at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and which he did not endorse or agree with,'' the statement said. Milken resigned from Drexel last year but the statement said he had gradually reduced his day-to-day activity after he was linked to the government's Wall Street investigation in late 1986. It said the lawsuit amounts to ``shifting the blame to the most convenient scapegoat on the financial scene - Michael Milken - who has been blamed for every problem facing the U.S. economy except the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.'' The lawsuit joins scores of other civil complaints against Milken for alleged wrongdoing related to his guilty plea as well as other trading activity during his tenure at Drexel, which is now in federal bankruptcy court proceedings. The 176-page lawsuit by Columbia also claims that Milken and other Drexel employees appropriated stock in buyouts for themselves via the investment partnerships that should have gone to junk bond buyers in the deals. The suit accuses Milken and others of manipulating the junk bond market, giving bribes and stock investment opportunities to some thrift executives, misappropriating valuable stock interests in junk bond deals, skimming profits from junk bond trading, and controlling through illegal means a web of thrifts and other investors in junk bonds. Columbia was one of many savings and loans, big investors and other institutions that invested heavily in deals financed or supported by Drexel in the 1980s. Columbia says in the suit that its junk bonds have a total face value of $4.3 billion, but that it has written down their value to $2.5 billion to account for the decline in their market price. It also says it has suffered actual losses of $200 million through the sale of some bonds. The suit says Columbia was ``ill-equipped'' to make use of relaxed federal laws in the early 1980s that allowed thrifts to invest in corporate securities such as junk bonds. It alleges that Milken and the others exploited this weakness. The savings and loan is expected to be take over soon by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as part of the nation's costly thrift bailout. The FDIC and Resolution Trust Corp., which administers the failed thrifts, already have filed a claim for $4.5 billion against Drexel in federal bankruptcy court alleging that fraudulent junk bond dealings caused Columbia heavy losses. Also named in the Milken lawsuit are former Drexel chief executive Frederick Joseph; Milken's brother, Lowell, also a former Drexel executive; Peter Ackerman, Drexel's former chief of capital markets; and other officials. As part of his settlement of criminal and civil charges by the government, Milken has agreed to place $400 million in a fund to compensate investors harmed by his actions. But he would remain liable for awards exceeding the amount in the fund.
Columbia Savings & Loan Association has filed a $6 billion civil lawsuit against Michael Milken and other former Drexel Burnham Lambert officials. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday by the trustee representing Drexel’s shareholders who are seeking to recover their money from the disgraced financier, according to court The suit alleges that the thrift lost more than $2 billion on investments in junk bonds and seeks three times that amount under federal racketeering and antitrust laws. It accuses Milken and others of manipulating the junk bond market, giving bribes, misappropriating valuable stock interests, and skimming profits.