Boesky Transferred to N.Y. Jail to Testify

Financier Ivan F. Boesky, serving a three-year sentence for his role in Wall Street’s biggest insider trading scandal to date, has been moved to New York from Lompoc prison in California, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Federal officials in Washington said Boesky was expected to testify in legal proceedings.

Boesky was transferred from Lompoc, a prison without bars considered a “country club,” to the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York, known as “The Tombs,” a week ago, the Lompoc prison spokeswoman said.

In Washington, U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Joe Scibana confirmed that Boesky was at the New York center temporarily for an appearance in “some sort of legal action.”

A Justice Department official said Boesky would be at the temporary holding facility either awaiting his appearance to testify as a witness in a trial or to go before a grand jury.

Boesky’s lawyer, Leon Silverman, said at Boesky’s trial last December in New York that Boesky had given authorities information about violations by five major firms and 14 individuals.

Boesky, 51, also faces civil suits filed by shareholders and companies alleging that he used confidential information to trade illegally in their stock.

Boesky, accused of making $50 million through illegal stock tips, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on a single charge of illegal trading, and he agreed to pay $100 million--half of the amount in return for his profits from insider trading and half as a penalty.