Before Grumpa was Grumpa he sold 'junk' with a bunch of criminals... And was caught

Stephen Walsh is one of a small number individually implicated and sanctioned in what LA Times called the "biggest private financial scandal of the 20th century." Drexel Burnham Lambert pled guilty to six criminal felony counts. It was fined hundreds of millions of dollars for fraud. Over a thousand employees lost their jobs overnight in what became known as the "Valentine's Day Massacre." The institution filed for bankruptcy on a Feb 13. The firm's head Michael Milken and a small number of employees went to jail. Stephen Walsh, a star on their trading floor, and called by some at the time, the 'best bond trader' on Wall Street was fined $400,000.

A "Bonfire of the Vanities" lit New York '80s, but as the decade closed that frenzy subsided and some of its worst financial misdeeds held to account. This accounting wasn't just legal. It was cultural.

In the movie, Wall Street with Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas, Sheen plays Bud Fox, a smart and ambitious young man with working-class roots. Fox hustles and sweats his way to the top of the financial world. There sits Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas. Gekko buys companies with other people's money and sells them for scraps .

Fox, ultimately has to choose between the money and what's right. The consequences of his actions only made clear when Gekko targets the airline where his father works. Fox kills the deal and in the final scene, one of the best in movies, Gekko punches and lectures Fox amidst the pouring rain in Central Park. "You could have been one of the greatest Buddy. I looked at you and saw myself. Why?" he asks Fox as he wipes blood and grime from his face.

"I don't know. I guess I realized that I'm just Bud Fox. As much I wanted to be Gordon Gekko. I will *always* be Bud Fox." A bit later, changing his wet and blood spattered shirt in the bathroom of the nearby Tavern on the Green, it's revealed he Bud Fox is wearing a wire. Gekko goes to jail.

In Boiler Room, staring Ben Affleck and Giovanni Ribisi, the same morality tale unfolds from a different perspective and focuses on the mindset and culture of the trading floor or "war room" of a wannabe financial giant. Affleck's character Jim similarly lectures Ribisi's character Seth Davis when the fraud and criminality that underpins their trading comes to light. Seth too has to make some tough choices and ultimately helps the FBI bring down firm.

Stephen Walsh's story at the now disgraced Drexel Burnham Lambert eerily mirrors these two movies. Oliver Stone said his character Gekko was a composite of Michael Milken and another criminal financier of the day. And Drexel was called the "king of the Boiler Room" by its films makers.  

Drexel is most known for the "junk" bonds it traded in part to help finance the buying and breakup of companies. Stephen Walsh made his fortune trading bonds for Drexel, but has humble roots.

Stephen Walsh grew up without a father in a tough part of the Bronx. His working-class mom supported him and his siblings as a waitress. She knew Michael Milken, and the billionaire financier gaver her son a job. Exceeding smart and good with numbers and fighter by nature, Walsh excelled at Drexel rocketing through its ranks. Some called him the 'best trader on Wall Street' as he generated incredible wealth for himself and the firm. He was only 35 when felony indictments and his sanction came down.

Walsh's story parallels that of Bud Fox (Wall Street) and Seth Davis (Boiler Room) in so many ways save one. Walsh didn't do the right thing simply sank with the ship. At 35 he "retired."

Years later, after trying his hand at writing, Walsh went back to trading Mortgage Backed Securities. His daughter, perhaps not knowing the implications of her words, reassured her readers while recounting the tale. My Dad was smart. He knew better than to buy them himself. Very smart. In that "next-biggest-financial-crisis" of the 20th century very very few were as smart or did as well.