Milken to Stay on Probation

A federal judge extended Michael Milken’s probation for the eighth and last time, giving regulators 31 more days to decide whether to charge the former financier with violating his probation.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in Manhattan extended Milken’s probation to March 1 to let the Securities and Exchange Commission continue to investigate whether Milken is complying with his 1990 court-ordered banishment from the securities industry.

Wood can send Milken back to prison without trial if she finds that the former head of junk bonds at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. has violated probation by reentering the investment field.

Milken, 51, says the consulting work he has done for media executives and financiers since his 1993 release from prison is legal because it doesn’t involve securities.