Inside Trader Boesky Freed After 2 Years

NEW YORK —  Wall Street’s Ivan Boesky, who went to prison two years ago for his role in the biggest insider-trading scandal in U.S. history, was set free today.

Boesky, once one of Wall Street’s top speculators who specialized in takeover stocks, shocked the financial world in 1986 when he agreed to pay $100 million to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that he illegally used confidential company information to make millions of dollars.

He was released at 5 a.m. from a Brooklyn halfway house where he had been staying since December, a spokesman for the correctional center said.

Boesky was released into home custody from the halfway house eight weeks ago. But he had been required to call officials there every day and stay two nights a week at the facility. He also had been visited by the center’s staff once a week at his home and place of employment.

The spokesman declined to say where Boesky was working, but he is reported to be living in the New York area. Boesky owns a 75-acre estate north of New York.

Boesky, who was sent to prison March 23, 1988, spent most of his term in the minimum-security Lompoc Federal Prison Camp in California. Last December he was transferred to the Brooklyn Community Corrections Center.

He is now required to report to a probation officer once a month for the next six months.

Boesky also pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of filing false information with the SEC.