Who's Jordan Belfort? I'll Tell You Exactly Who He Is

Jordan Belfort is the biggest Wall Street crook you've never heard of. He was the king of funny business (not in the ha-ha way) during the bull market of the '90s, nicknamed "The Wolf of Wall Street." I profile Belfort on "Business Nation" this month, and you'll learn how he created a brokerage called Stratton Oakmont which functioned like a cult.
Belfort hired young, hungry brokers. Some hadn't even graduated from high school. All they had to do was swear loyalty to him, read his scripts over the phone while cold calling, and everyone would get rich. It was a classic pump and dump scheme where brokers would drive up the price of stocks, and then Belfort would dump the large chunks he and his partners controlled, cashing out. Then the stock prices would collapse.
And everyone at Stratton Oakmont did get rich. And then they all did a lot of drugs, drank a lot of expensive wine, bought a lot of outrageous toys, and threw outrageous parties populated by a lot of hookers. You have to hear this guy tell his own story to me. More details are in his new book "The Wolf of Wall Street," which has now been optioned for a movie, naturally. Leonardo Di Caprio is interested!
To me, the most amazing part of Jordan Belfort's story was his insane personal life. He says he flew his own helicopter while high, sank his 167-foot yacht (once owned by Coco Chanel) in the Mediterranean while high, drove with his 3-year-old daughter unbuckled beside him though a garage door while high. Belfort says at the height of his drug problem, he was taking 22 different medications: 20 quaaludes a day, balanced out by cocaine, the morphine, xanax, valium, etc. You name it, he abused it. I said to him, "Even if half of this is true (skeptical as always) how are you alive?" He says he was just really good about balancing it all out.
Belfort was finally arrested and convicted. And, in keeping with the insanity of it all, his cellmate turned out to be Tommy Chong, of Cheech and Chong fame. Chong was apparently serving time for selling bongs over the internet (I guess you can't do that sort of commerce across state lines). You'll hear from Chong in my report as well. He inspired Belfort to write the book.
By the way, my favorite part of the book is when Belfort goes to rehab. I actually laughed out loud during his tale of tortured redemption. Still tortured, though, and not laughing, are the people he ripped off to the tune of $200 million. You'll hear from one of them--Bill Moison, a successful real estate investor who got taken for $200,000.


I spent a lot time with Jordan both on Long Island, where he committed the crimes, and in Manhattan Beach, where he now lives to be close to his kids (he's divorced). He's charming, in a way. He tells hilarious stories, and yet he still impresses me as something of a desperate salesman, the short kid from Queens who wants fame and fortune.