Call Me Stormy

The Real Wolf Of Wall Street

Former stockbroker Jordan Belfort, The Real Wolf of Wall Street, says his plan going forward is to repay victims of his wild investment scams during the 1990s. Belfort, who founded a boiler-room operation as part of a stock manipulation and penny stock scam, served 22 months in prison for his part in the scheme. He published his memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street in 2007, which was adapted into a film of the same name in 2013.

Appearing on Bloomberg Quicktake, Belfort says when he sobered up and looked back at his life, he freaked out at what he’d done and began getting perspective. The process continued in jail, where he began examining his life. “I started to write a book and when you write, it’s like this advanced form of hypotherapy, where you examine your actions and get to peel back the layers and motivations.”

While Belfort was one of the few that served jail time, there are banks and CEOs paying huge fines for irregularities on Wall Street, but we’re still not seeing criminal prosecution. He blames it on the incestuous relationship between the government and Wall Street, where former Wall Streeters went into the public sector and changed the rules and allowed loopholes. Here’s more of his take on the financial crisis.