Wolfson, before receiving acclaim for having bred and raced the great Affirmed, was noted for other things:
But in the mid-1960s, he was facing securities-related criminal indictments: one for conspiracy to defraud Merritt stockholders in a stock-purchase plan, the other for allegedly selling $2.5 million in unregistered stocks.
The second charge stuck. After he was convicted of selling unregistered stock -- a charge he denied -- Wolfson served almost a year at Eglin Air Force Base's minimum-security federal prison in Florida's Panhandle. He was the first person ever to end up behind bars for SEC violations.
The case indirectly brought down U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, who accepted a $20,000 consulting fee from Wolfson's family foundation before Wolfson's indictment. He returned the money, but it was too late to save him from disgrace, and he resigned.
In April 1969, while preparing to go to prison and his business empire crumbling around him, Wolfson told The Wall Street Journal that he didn't know he was doing anything wrong.
''I didn't use any fictitious names in selling the stock. No Swiss banks,'' he said. ``When I made the sale, I reported it to the SEC. I'd have had to be an idiot to do anything willfully wrong.''
Two years later, Wolfson was in the news again: He had Larry King -- then a Miami radio host, now a CNN personality -- arrested on grand-larceny charges for allegedly pocketing $5,000, part of a $25,000 payment destined for New Orleans District Attorney James Garrison.
Wolfson's time in prison changed him for good. He became a prison reform advocate. But horse racing ultimately consumed much of his time in his later years and restored his reputation.
