Passage: Victor Posner

Back in the heyday of junk bonds, there were a few names a CEO dreaded hearing: Milken, Boesky, Perelman, and Posner. Yesterday Victor Posner died after being ill with pneumonia for some time at age 83. Most of his career was as a spectacularly successful real estate investor beginning in Baltimore in the depths of the Depression. He got caught up in too many shenanigans in the ’80s playing games with Milken and Boesky and in 1993 a judge finally barred Posner from any further involvement with public companies. His Security Management Corporation is one of the largest landowners in Florida and while he bought and traded public companies, he only bought land. Throughout his troubles, though, he was a generous man, backing hospitals, universities, and other causes.