Drugs, sex and money: essentials to the story of Mr. Jordan Belfort, the man better known as the Wolf of Wall Street. After spending 22 months in prison for stock fraud and money laundering, Belfort wrote of his experiences in a memoir titled “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Following its publication in 2007, Martin Scorsese directed a movie based on the book, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie. Belfort’s story has captivated audiences around the world; the book has sold around one million copies and the movie has made a total of $392,000,694. Although Belfort’s story has fascinated audiences worldwide, he has received a lot of criticism, but not for the reasons you’d think.
In “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Belfort recounts tons of hard-to-believe stories about his extravagant life before he was convicted. The book is riddled with profanity, telling tales of heavy drug use, illegal stock manipulation and vulgar encounters with prostitutes. Belfort’s voice is so strong and his character is absolutely fascinating that it is no wonder the book was an instant success. It is a wonder, though, why Belfort would write about such things, especially now that he has two grown children and enough money to comfortably live out his life without receiving royalties from the book. Within the first few pages, Belfort addresses this, writing, “But what I sincerely hope is that my life serves as a cautionary tale to the rich and poor alike; to anyone who’s living with a spoon up their nose and a bunch of pills dissolving in their stomach sac; or to any person who’s considering taking a God-given gift and misusing it; to anyone who decides to go to the dark side of the force and live a life of unbridled hedonism. And to anyone that thinks there’s anything glamorous about being known as a Wolf of Wall Street.” His voice comes through strong in this passage, convincing readers that he is a changed man. It is clear that Belfort was born to sell, but critics aren't buying.
Joel Cohen, one of the federal agents who prosecuted Belfort, has a lot to say in his article written for the New York Times titled "The Real Belfort Story Missing from 'Wolf' Movie." Cohen calls Belfort out on inventing a lot of the story he has told in the book, specifically, his refusal to cooperate with agents. Belfort depicts himself as a stubborn, willful man who values loyalty above all, but Cohen writes, "When their days of reckoning came, Mr. Belfort and Mr. Porush [Belfort's business partner] didn’t stand up against law enforcement, but rather caved, quickly agreeing to cooperate against virtually everyone close to them."
Cohen also mentions that Belfort fabricated his nickname as "The Wolf of Wall Street" and was not as revered by his employees as he claims. In both the book and the movie, Belfort claims that Forbes magazine wrote an article wherein he is described as a "twisted Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers" and is given the nickname "The Wolf of Wall Street." Although Roula Khalaf, the writer of the infamous article, did describe Belfort as such, she did not coin the Wolf nickname; that was Belfort's own doing.
There are other parts of the movie and the book that Porush says never happened such as hiring dwarfs to throw at a dart board and parading a monkey through the office on rollerblades, however, he did admit to eating one of the broker's pet goldfish, so you can decide for yourself who to believe.
Whether or not these stories are true, they are fascinating, nonetheless. Belfort currently lives in Los Angeles, California and manages his own company which provides sales training aimed at building wealth. He calls his program "Straight Line Persuasion" and it is available for purchase on his website for just under $2,000. Along with selling his program, he books motivational speeches around the world. Critics say that Jordan Belfort is nothing but a liar and his "changed-man" persona is just an act, but it cannot be denied that he is a great salesman, and an even better story-teller.
