Seema Boesky

Seema Boesky was 13 when she inherited a 48-percent interest in the Beverly Hills Hotel Corporation, a real estate and hotel empire built by her father, Detroit-based developer Ben Silberstein. Her sister, Muriel, inherited another 48 percent; a cousin, 4 percent. The arrangement left no one happy. Seema Boesky won that battle, buying her cousin’s shares and majority ownership of the company in 1981. It sold, in 1986, for $136 million. With the sale finalized, her relationship with her sister effectively ended. Seema was 23 when she married Ivan Bosky in 1962. He came from a middle-class family that ran delicatessens and bars in Detroit. The two of them launched a successful arbitrage business with $700,000 in capital, much of it from Seema’s family. The business became hugely profitable. By the mid-’80s, they controlled a $1.2 billion portfolio. Seema turned herself into a serious collector of paintings and sculpture. She focused on French Impressionists. Ivan was convicted of insider trading in 1986. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined a record-breaking $100 million. Seema had not been convicted or accused of anything, but national charities whited out their names from donor lists.