Milken Was the Secret Purchaser of Auctioned Anne Frank Letters

Indicted junk bond dealer Michael Milken was the anonymous purchaser of a rare set of letters written by Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, that was auctioned here last October for $165,000.

The revelation was reported by The New York Times on Monday as part of an article detailing Milken’s astounding salary, said to be the largest of any American in history. He reportedly earned $550 million in 1987 alone and more than $1 billion in a four-year period.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, for whom the auctioned letters were purchased Oct. 25, wanted to keep the buyer’s name anonymous as long as possible.

This now seems explicable in light of the federal racketeering and insider-trading charges Milken faces in his role of managing high-risk bonds for the Wall Street investment firm Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

The Wiesenthal Center’s New York office confirmed Monday that Milken was the purchaser of the letters and said that fact had been announced at an 80th birthday party for Wiesenthal in November.

But if such an announcement was made, reporters who attended could not recall it. And only Sunday, the day before the Times article appeared, the center’s dean, Rabbi Marvin Hier, declined to divulge the purchaser’s identity.

Milken, 42, of Encino, Calif., was indicted by a federal grand jury March 29 on 98 counts, including securities and mail fraud, insider trading, making false statements to the government, and racketeering and securities fraud.

PRAISE IN JEWISH COMMUNITY

The indictment is the largest ever criminal action against a Wall Street figure. Prosecutors are seeking a $1.8 billion fine against Milken and two others named in the indictment.

The charges against Milken came about as a result of information given two years ago by arbitrager Ivan Boesky when he was charged with illegal insider trading.

But throughout the financial and Jewish communities, there has been little but praise for Milken during the last week.

Last Friday, 88 friends of Milken took out a full-page advertisement in major American newspapers that read, “Mike Milken, we believe in you.” It was signed by corporate heads and a professor of neurosurgery.

Milken has given extensively to Jewish causes, particularly in the Los Angeles area. He is on the board of directors of the Stephen Wise Synagogue there, and is a major contributor to the University of Judaism and the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.

Milken contributed a significant sum in 1987 for a new Jewish Federation campus in the San Fernando Valley. The Bernard Milken Jewish Community Center, named for Milken’s late father, houses the West Hills regional office of the federation, the West Valley Jewish Community Center and many of the federation’s agencies.

At the University of Judaism, Ira Schreck, director of development, said Milken endowed a collection last year in the humanities division of the library, “and we didn’t know about the pledge until the check came in the mail.”