Where Is The Wolf Of Wall Street Now After Defrauding Hundreds Of Millions From Investors?
You may know The Wolf of Wall Street as a film that came out in 2013, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. However, the Oscar-nominated movie was actually inspired by a 2007 memoir by Jordan Belfort, in which he described his own experience as a scamming Wall Street stockbroker. He served 22 months in prison for his crimes.
Jordan Belfort founded the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, Inc. in 1989, defrauding hundreds of millions from investors.
At the peak of his success, he made almost one million dollars per week. In 1996, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) officially expelled the firm.
In 1998, Belfort was arrested on charges of securities fraud and money laundering. He pled guilty and agreed to pay $110 million in restitution to his victims.
On July 18, 2003, Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison, but he only ended up serving 22 months. He was released from prison in 2006. Afterward, he wrote a memoir, which was then turned into a film.
Belfort found the movie to be pretty accurate, particularly the scenes showing excessive drug use and interactions with women.
He also approved of DiCaprio’s portrayal of him. However, in January 2020, he sued one of the film’s producers for $300 million, the amount that the movie made at the box office.
He claimed that Red Granite Productions had lied about the film’s funding and misled him into selling the rights to his story.
In a statement, the company’s lawyer described the lawsuit as “desperate and supremely ironic” and labeled it as an attempt “to get out from under an agreement that, for the first time in his life, made him rich and famous through lawful and legitimate means.”
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Last year, Red Granite Productions CEO Riza Aziz was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. Aziz is the stepson of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was accused of siphoning $700 million of the film’s funding into his own bank accounts.
Nowadays, Belfort is an author, motivational public speaker, and entrepreneur. He offers a variety of services, including several business courses, corporate training, private consulting, and speaking engagements.
In 2021, he proposed to his now-wife, Christina Invernizzi, an actress of Argentinian and Italian descent. Invernizzi spoke mostly Spanish when they first met and wasn’t aware of his criminal history.
Before his marriage to Invernizzi, Belfort was married to Nadine Caridi. They wed in 1995, and their divorce was finalized in 2005.
They had two children together. In 2023, Belfort’s daughter, Chandler, welcomed her first child, making Belfort a grandfather.
Since writing his original 2007 memoir, Belfort has gone on to write three more books. His latest book is titled The Wolf of Investing: My Insider’s Playbook for Making a Fortune on Wall Street, which was published in 2023.
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