Lawyer Calls Boesky ‘a Pile of Garbage’ in Wall Street Trial

Convicted swindler Ivan Boesky is “a pile of human garbage” who lied repeatedly on the witness stand about dealings with former stock speculator John A. Mulheren Jr., Mulheren’s lawyer said today.

In closing arguments in Mulheren’s fraud and conspiracy trial, attorney Thomas Puccio attacked the credibility of Boesky, who testified against Mulheren as part of a plea deal that settled insider trading charges.

“If there ever was a person to whom the title Prince of Darkness could be applied,” Puccio said, “Ivan Boesky is that man: the king of greed, a person who stood for nothing except his own ambition, his own greed.”

“Boesky, ladies and gentlemen, is a pile of human garbage,” he said. “And that is what the government of the United States had put up to testify against John Mulheren.”

Mulheren, 40, is charged with 30 counts of conspiracy, securities and mail fraud, and keeping false books and records in connection with allegedly illegal securities transactions with Boesky in 1985 and 1986.