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- BUSINESS, Page 53Business NotesSETTLEMENTSLet's Not Make A Deal Yet
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- Michael Milken thought he had struck the deal of his life
- last week. But the idea that he might still command a fortune of
- up to $500 million even after paying out $900 million to victims
- of his crimes did not sit well with the Federal Deposit Insurance
- Corporation. The agency scuttled, at least temporarily, a $1.3
- billion settlement of suits brought by thousands of investors
- who said they had been bilked by the jailed junk-bond king's
- schemes.
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- To be certain of wringing all it can from Milken and his
- co-defendants, the FDIC demanded to know his net worth, together
- with that of some 150 of his former colleagues at the firm
- Drexel Burnham Lambert who agreed to contribute $300 million to
- the settlement. (The firm's insurers would put up an additional
- $100 million.)
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- Yet with hearings resuming in Manhattan this week before
- U.S. Judge Milton Pollack, all sides have incentives to reach
- agreement. A settlement could strengthen Milken's plea for
- reduction of his 10-year sentence for securities fraud; he has
- already served a year. And the FDIC, which represents savings
- and loans that failed after loading up on junk bonds, stands to
- receive at least $500 million. The rest of the settlement would
- go to defrauded investors who participated in the suits.
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