10 Reasons the Real-Life "Wolf of Wall Street" Is a Schmuck Who Shouldn't Be Glamorized

[Quixote1818]

And that's not the only reason we think he's a schmuck. We did our homework so you don't have to, both reading his book and studying the court record. Here are the 10 reasons why we refuse to glamorize him -- DiCaprio or no DiCaprio.

10. He Wasn't Really a Wolf ... Belfort gave himself the nickname "Wolf of Wall Street" to romanticize his sordid story and build his brand. "In eight years of working with him, I never heard anyone call him the Wolf or anything like that," says Danny Porush, Belfort's partner from 1988-96 in the investment banking firm Stratton Oakmont.

9. ... And He Didn't Work on Wall Street Belfort's investment banking firm, Stratton Oakmont, was located in Lake Success, Long Island, almost an hour from Wall Street. But he trained his brokers to tell investors they were calling from Wall Street, where they had their fingers on the pulse of the economy. The Wolf of Long Island just didn't have the same zing.

8. His Business Acumen Was Limited to Fraud His scheme wasn't even all that clever, just that tired old pump-and-dump stock fraud that's been going on so long it's got whiskers on it. Business 101 students know the drill: cold-call gullible investors, establish credibility by having them make a little money in a solid stock, then convince them you have the inside track on something new and hot that they should pour their money in. When you manage to pump the price up and they make more paper profits, convince them to bet the ranch -- and then ignore their sell orders while you cash out your own blocks of stock at the top of the market, leaving your sucker investors grasping for air as the price drops like a stone.


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See also: How the "Wolf of Wall Street" Is Still Screwing His Real-Life Victims: http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/12/jordan_belfort_victims.php