Milken Deserves Much Praise

The U.S. government should have given Michael Milken a commendation and gold medal for the help he’s provided our country’s economy instead of indicting him.

The companies Milken and his associates at Drexel Burnham Lambert saved, provided with growth capital or helped start created hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in profit. Many of the companies Milken helped could not obtain financing from “traditional” sources.

In the early 1980s, I was a senior executive with Mattel, becoming president of Mattel Toys U.S. division in 1984. The Mattel Electronics division in the early 1980s had lost millions of dollars to the point of jeopardizing the survival of the overall company because no “traditional” method of financing would provide Mattel with the cash that was needed. Milken stepped forward and provided those necessary funds, saving a company from going bankrupt and saving thousands of jobs. Yes, we had to pay high interest rates, but we managed it, survived, and today the company is again healthy.

In business, Milken always kept his word, worked with management to achieve our goals and provided advice and help when asked. He always conducted himself in a professional, ethical, honest manner. I’ve never heard Milken suggest any questionable activity or seen him engaged in anything but proper business and worthwhile community practices.

To many who know Milken, it appears that the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department lawyers are willing to listen to traditional financiers jealous of what Milken has accomplished, take the word of convicted felons who are trying to save their own skins or perhaps have assumed Milken must be guilty of something because of the huge amount of money he has made. These government lawyers have unsuccessfully tried to coerce Milken, and as a last resort, have used the unjust pressure of an indictment under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Milken does not deserve this kind of treatment by our government. He is not a gangster or mobster, for which RICO was intended.

When this is all over Milken will still deserve a commendation for all he’s done that has helped the U.S. economy, but I doubt he’d accept it. Let’s hope for a swift resolution of this matter and a return of Milken’s brilliance and ideas to helping this country’s economy.

THOMAS J. KALINSKE

Carson

The writer is president and chief operating officer of Universal Matchbox Group Ltd.