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- BUSINESS, Page 54Business NotesWALL STREETBig Brother Is Listening
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- When anyone at Drexel Burnham Lambert talks, the Government
- may soon be listening. Last week the investment firm said it
- would submit to unprecedented federal supervision as part of an
- agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle
- charges of insider trading and stock fraud. The deal will
- enable Drexel to proceed with a separate settlement of criminal
- charges, first announced last December, for which the firm will
- pay $650 million in fines.
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- Drexel's pact with the SEC, which must be approved by a
- federal judge, will allow the firm to close the book on a 2
- 1/2-year federal probe. But the price is high. The agreement
- puts Drexel on probation for three years and requires it to set
- up an oversight committee. The firm is also naming a new
- chairman, former SEC head John Shad, to succeed Drexel's Robert
- Linton. As expected, the deal forces Drexel to cut all ties to
- its former junk-bond king, Michael Milken, who is facing
- separate criminal charges of racketeering and securities fraud.
- Last week Milken agreed to set aside assets of at least $600
- million, which could be forfeited if he is found guilty.
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