Stratton Oakmont functioned as a boiler room that marketed penny stocks and defrauded investors with the ' pump and dump' type of stock sales. Stratton Oakmont īelfort founded Stratton Oakmont as a franchise of Stratton Securities, then later bought out the original founder. Belfort says he was laid off after that firm experienced financial difficulties related to the Black Monday stock market crash of 1987. According to his memoirs and interviews, a family friend helped him find a job as a trainee stockbroker at L.F. The business ultimately failed, as he filed for bankruptcy at 25. He claims in interviews and his memoirs that the business was an initial success he grew his meat-selling business to employ several workers and sold 5,000 pounds (2,300 kilograms) of beef and fish a week. If you're here simply because you're looking to make a lot of money, you're in the wrong place.' Career Early ventures īelfort became a door-to-door meat and seafood salesman on Long Island, New York. He left after the dean of the school said to him on his first day: 'The golden age of dentistry is over. Belfort planned on using the money earned with Loewenstern to pay for dental school, and he enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. Belfort went on to graduate from American University with a degree in biology. Between completing high school and starting college, Belfort and his close childhood friend Elliot Loewenstern earned $20,000 selling Italian ice from styrofoam coolers to people at a local beach.

His father Max and his mother Leah were both accountants. He published the memoir The Wolf of Wall Street in 2007, which was adapted into a film with the same name released in 2013.īelfort was born in 1962 in the Bronx borough of New York City to Jewish parents. Belfort spent 22 months in prison as part of an agreement under which he gave testimony against numerous partners and subordinates in his fraud scheme. In 1999, he pled guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of a penny-stock scam.

Jordan Ross Belfort ( / ˈ b ɛ l f ə r t/ born July 9, 1962) is an American entrepreneur, speaker, author, former stockbroker and convicted felon. Released April 2006 after 22 months Ģ years in federal prison, one month in rehab, $110 million in restitution

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