Discover Wolf Of Wall Street Movie and Book
From a flashy lifestyle in the 1990s to a fraud condemnation as the decade drew to a close and a new life as a motivational speaker, the story of Jordan Belfort is one of the most studied tales of Wall Street gone wrong---and how to make it right.
Born in July, 1962, Jordan Belfort was the son of Max and Leah Belfort---Jewish accountants living in the Bronx and later Long Island. Max Belfort was a major influence in Jordan's life, even going on to become the CEO of one of the most successful, opulent and ultimately fraudulent Wall Street brokerage firms, Stratton Oakmont. While 'Mad' Max Belfort was at the helm of the firm, Leah Belfort moved away from being an accountant and established herself as a lawyer.
Before he quit college to create his wealth, Jordan Belfort was studying to be a dentist. After working as a salesman for several years, Jordan Belfort started a profitable yet somewhat illegal business of brokering in penny stocks. As the business grew, he established Stratton Oakmont, a boiler room firm that defrauded investors of more than 200 million dollars. Stratton Oakmont perfected the art of selling huge amounts of penny stocks to unsuspecting buyers, inflating their prices and selling them at a huge profit margin -- in what is known as 'pump and dump' schemes -- raking up over 50 million per year for himself. Mr. Belfort is considered by finance executives and analysts to be the artificer of the modern Ponzi scheme. At one time, Stratton Oakmont had a staff of over one thousand brokers handling over a billion dollars worth of stocks.
However, things were soon to take a volte-face for Belfort. Financial Crimes Unit of the FBI smelled foul and soon an investigation on the affairs of Stratton Oakmont got initiated. The investigation accused Belfort of securities fraud and money laundering, and he got convicted of white collar crime and was handed a prison term of 2 years. And it is in prison that Jordan finished writing the manuscript of 'The Wolf of Wall Street', the book which would get published in 2008 and will end up being Jordan's bestselling book. The next year followed the sequel "Catching the Wolf of Wall Street". Jordan was also asked by the Federal court to pay close to $110 million of the money he had earned through his fraudulent activities. As of in 2013, he is known to have been seeking relief from the above court adjudication.
Presently, Jordan Belfort is a motivational speaker, consultant and a successful writer who has extensively written about the role of corporate morality in local as well as international magazines and newspapers. Through Straight Line, his new company, Belfort trains executives on how to generate wealth in an ethical fashion through high-return sales techniques. He also speaks and makes presentations at the most prestigious CXO-level seminars and conferences around the world. In the year 2013, Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed Belfort's life in the film 'The Wolf of Wall Street'.
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