Dennis B Levine

The group of limited partners alleged that Wall Street speculator Ivan F. Boesky deceived them into investing last year in his $1-billion Ivan F. Boesky & Co. through misleading partnership documents. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also names as defendants Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., investment banker for the partnership, and two of the firm's former executives, Dennis B. Levine and Martin E. Siegel.

Martha Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the brokerage firm, said Drexel Burnham Lambert is changing the report to remove references to Dennis B. Levine, who was charged by the SEC on May 12 with illegal insider trading. Levine was a managing director in Drexel's mergers and acquisitions department. Levine is quoted in the report, in which a photograph of him appears. Goldstein said the firm probably will order about 40,000 of the revised reports.

Randall D. Cecola, a former junior analyst at the investment firm Lazard Freres & Co., has been subpoenaed by the government, apparently in connection with the widening insider trading case involving Dennis B. Levine, the firm said. However, the attorney for Cecola said there was no indication that his client was under investigation himself. A former investment banker at Lazard Freres, Robert M.

Robert M. Wilkis, 37, of Manhattan, convicted for his role in an insider trading scheme, received a year and a day in jail from a federal judge who said the defendant was the victim of his co-defendant, Dennis B. Levine. Wilkis could have received up to 20 years in prison and $850,000 in fines for his guilty plea to securities fraud, mail fraud, tax evasion and violating currency-import reporting law.

Ira B. Sokolow, a former vice president of Shearson Lehman Bros. Inc., was sentenced to a year in prison today for his part in an insider trading scheme that netted millions in illegal profits for Dennis B. Levine, a former Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. managing director. Sokolow, 32, pleaded guilty Sept. 4 to securities fraud and tax evasion. He received about $120,000 for tipping Levine to more than a dozen mergers that were still secret. Levine made $4 million on the tips.

A lawyer was indicted Tuesday on charges of mail fraud and securities fraud for allegedly passing corporate inside information to friends and relatives who made nearly $1.5 million on trading profits. The federal grand jury indictment charges Israel G. Grossman of Brooklyn, N.Y., with 12 counts of mail fraud and 12 counts of securities fraud. Officials said the case had no connection to the Wall Street insider trading scandal involving Dennis B. Levine and Ivan F. Boesky.

When Ivan F. Boesky's book, "Merger Mania," came out in 1985, it was thick with fancy arithmetic that purported to explain how Wall Street's most powerful arbitrager, or speculator in takeover stocks, had made his millions. People who read it thought Boesky was a pretty smart guy. They had second thoughts the following year, however, when Boesky pleaded guilty to a list of insider trading violations and gave up $100 million in fines and illegal profits.

Regarding "We Have All Been Robbed by Deceit of 3 'Geniuses,' " (Viewpoints, March 1): As the courts and legal system are so lenient on so-called first-time offenders such as Dennis B. Levine, Martin A. Siegel and Ivan F. Boesky--even though millions of dollars have been stolen and all our lives affected by their illegal activities--may I suggest an appropriate punishment in the form of public humiliation? That is clearly the only thing these men fear--public exposure of venal, low crimes.

A federal judge Tuesday approved a $46.8-million settlement of lawsuits against Ivan F. Boesky to repay investors who were cheated by the fallen speculator's securities fraud. The money probably will be spread among thousands of investors with claims against Boesky, who was at the center of Wall Street's most sensational insider trading scandal.