GAF Corporation

GAF Corporation was a diversified chemical and building materials conglomerate controlled by corporate raider Samuel Heyman. Vice Chairman James Sherwin orchestrated a stock manipulation scheme in connection with GAF's attempted takeover of Union Carbide in 1986, using Ivan Boesky's organization to artificially inflate Union Carbide's stock price. Sherwin was convicted of securities fraud and common law fraud in 1991 after two earlier mistrials. GAF itself was originally indicted on criminal charges of stock manipulation, but corporate charges ended in mistrials and were eventually dropped. The company paid $2 million in SEC fines. The case was a landmark prosecution of corporate raider tactics and their intersection with the Boesky insider trading network.