Who Is Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street?
You’ve probably heard of him, the infamous “Wolf of Wall Street” — Jordan Belfort. But who is he, and what makes him famous? Here’s everything you need to know about Jordan Belfort, the rapacious stockbroker and infamous leader of the penny stock-swindling, fast-living culture of Wall Street in the late 80s and early 90s.
History of Jordan Belfort
Jordan Ross Belfort was born on July 9, 1962, in New York City. He grew up living in a small apartment with his parents and two siblings in the Queens borough. From a very young age, Jordan was a very ambitious person with an entrepreneurial spirit, even delivering newspapers and selling ice-cream during the summer.
At age 25, he landed his first job on Wall Street at the Stock Exchange L.F. Rothschild, but shortly after, he was fired due to the 1987 market crash. After that, Jordan began to work at the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, Inc. where he started to create a series of scams and schemes to manipulate penny stocks.
Jordan Belfort’s Scandals
In the late 1980s, Belfort opened Stratton Oakmont, a brokerage firm in the Long Island area of New York. With Belfort as the leader, Stratton Oakmont became notorious for its scams and schemes that put the traditional Wall Street elite (e.g. Big Banks such as JPMorgan & Chase) to shame. In addition to selling overpriced and worthless penny stocks, Belfort used illegal tactics such as false advertising and stock manipulation to accomplish this.
Amongst his most famous schemes was to dupe investors into buying stocks by convincing them the stock was worth more than it actually was. This became known as the “pump and dump” scheme. The scheme was wildly successful, generating millions for Belfort and his company. However, it also brought about a string of scandals, including an investigation by the SEC during the 1990s.
Bankruptcy and Criminal Charges
It was only a matter of time before Belfort was caught by the authorities and he was eventually arrested in April 1998. As a result, an indictment was filed against him and he was charged with security fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to prison in November 1998 and ultimately had to pay a hefty $110.4 million restitution.
Despite this, Belfort declared bankruptcy two years later and he used the money to repay people he had defrauded in a plea bargain with the U.S. Department of Justice. When he was finally freed from prison in 2005, Belfort had paid off all his restitution, as well as serving a shorter sentence than expected.
Reinvention and Career Change
Today, Jordan Belfort has entirely reinvented himself and is now a motivational speaker, author, and life coach. Rather than preaching the same unethical and immoral investment strategies he used to promote in the past, Belfort has transformed himself into an ethical and motivational leader dedicated to helping other people achieve success in their business and personal lives.
Belfort is now a very successful entrepreneur and public speaker. He has gone on to write four books which have become best sellers, and he also has his own podcast. He has been featured in numerous publications and television shows, including The Wolf of Wall Street, which was based on his life story.
Jordan Belfort is an inspiration to many. Despite his past mistakes, Jordan turned his life around and reinvented himself as an ethical businessman and mentor. He is now a successful and well-known motivational speaker and author, as well as a successful business leader. Today, he is a role model and mentor to many people, showing them the importance of taking responsibility and learning from past mistakes in order to become a better leader.
