Inside Out: An Insider's Account of Wall Street.

AuthorEichenwald, Kurt

Inside Out: An Insider's Account of Wall Street. Dennis B. Levine with William Hoffer, Putnam, $22.95. Reading Dennis Levine's book about his life and crimes on Wall Street, it was hard not to think of that old phrase that accompanied the publication of memoirs by Watergate conspirators: Don't buy books from crooks.

Levine was the first in a line of investment bankers and traders brought down by insider trading charges in what was to become the scandal of all Wail Street scandals. Although he made more that $1 million a year as an investment banker with Drexel Burnham Lambert, Levine stole confidential information entrusted to investment bankers and used it for his own profit by trading through a bank in the Bahamas in a multimillion-dollar swindle. Faced with the prospect of prison, Levine opted for his greatest trade: He would turn in his friends in exchange for a lighter sentence. Along the way, he fingered Ivan Boesky, the stock speculator who in turn offered evidence against Michael R. Milken, the former head Of Drexel's junk bond division and a senior general in the takeover wars.

Now Levine is back, peddling his own story for even more profits. It is a project that had the potential of being worthwhile. None of the other high-profile crooks from the eighties has taken pen to paper to try to describe what made him tick. No matter how many stories were written about these fellows with seemingly limitless greed, nothing could be more fascinating than one of them describing the behind-the-scenes action.

Unfortunately, the promise of such a project is sacrificed for the sake of Levine's own self-aggrandizement. Throughout this tedious work, Levine seems nothing more than a dissembler who, five years after pleading guilty, has learned from his crimes only that it's best not to get caught, He has slapped together a thoroughly unbelievable, self-promoting tome that rounds out his career perfectly: an unremarkable investment banker turned unimaginative crook turned lousy author.

In 431 pages of excuses in apologetic multi, Levine details what he contends is the truth about how he lied to his friends, lied to his wife, lied to his child, lied to his business associates, and, when the government was on his tail, persuaded others to lie for him. He insists he now knows this was wrong. But, with much grand proclamation, he portrays himself as a man whose relatively minor legal violations harmed no one.

Bunk. Dennis Levine is a self-proclaimed...

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