Bill Cohan writes big, meaty books about the personalities and institutions that shape American finance. His latest, Money to Burn: The Unvarnished Truth About Leon Black, Apollo, and the Rise of a New Wall Street explores the complicated life of Apollo Global Management founder, Leon Black.
With deep reporting and rich detail, Bill tells the story of Leon’s father’s leap to his death onto Park Avenue, his time working with junk bond king Michael Milken, Apollo’s astounding success, and how Leon made billions re-financing Twinkies.
A man of considerable ambition and intellect, Leon’s professional instincts created an $18 billion fortune. His personal instincts, on the other hand, earned him a place on the Epstein list and an extortionate Russian girlfriend. (It happens!)
Bill is a former investment banker who spent 17 years on Wall Street, co-founded news site Puck, and has written eight substantive books, six of which became New York Times bestsellers. Today, we discuss his career and writing process, his book about the Duke Lacrosse fiasco, and how that relates to what’s happening today at Cornell.
Learn more about Bill on his website and read his Puck column here.
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Episode Notes:
Catholic Disclaimer: I mixed up Immaculate “Conception” with “Assumption.” I ask your forgiveness.
The other book I mentioned about the banana industry is called The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King. It’s a pretty fascinating story, actually.
In our discussion of the Duke Lacrosse case, Bill mentions Roy Cooper who was the state attorney who assumed the case after Mike Nifong recused himself. This week, Roy won the election to be the U.S. Senator from the North Carolina.
Timestamps
00:00:00 Trailer
00:00:57 Intro
00:02:01 Why my grandfather changed our name from Cohen to Cohan
00:05:19 Andover and rooming near John F. Kennedy Jr.
00:07:14 The teacher who said I’d never be a writer
00:11:10 Hired on Wall Street a month before the 1987 crash
00:15:19 Rosebud and the fall of Eli Black
00:22:03 Who Leon Black is and what Apollo became
00:25:16 Mike Milken and the invention of junk bonds
00:28:34 How Leon Black bought Twinkies out of bankruptcy
00:32:18 The Russian girlfriend and the $100 million extortion demand
00:37:39 Why Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million
00:43:10 $130 million for The Scream
00:48:23 What everybody gets wrong about the Duke lacrosse case
01:00:23 Outro
