Who Is Jordan Belfort?

From a flashy lifestyle in the 1990s to a fraud condemnation as the decade drew to a close and a new life as a motivational speaker, the story of Jordan Belfort is one of the most studied tales of Wall Street gone wrong---and how to make it right.

Born in July, 1962, Jordan Belfort was the son of Max and Leah Belfort---Jewish accountants living in the Bronx and later Long Island. Max Belfort was a main influence in Jordan's life, even going on to become the CEO of one of the most successful, opulent and eventually fraudulent Wall Street brokerage firms, Stratton Oakmont. While 'Mad' Max Belfort was at the helm of the firm, Leah Belfort moved away from being an accountant and established herself as a lawyer.

Jordan enrolled into a dentist's college early in his career, but drooped out soon and started working in many small-time sales jobs, until he struck on the idea of starting a brokerage firm dealing with penny stocks. This was the start of Stratton Oakmont, the boiler room company which has now earned the dubious fame of defrauding investors of over $200 million. What Belfort did was to sell penny stocks in large quantities to credulous investors, and then drumming up their value artificially, ultimately selling the stocks for huge profits. During its best days, the company was taking home more than $50 million every year. Many finance executives and analysts see Belford as the predecessor of the later Ponzi schemes.

The illegal conglomerate of Jordan Belfort soon appeared on the radar of FBI's Financial Crimes Unit as well as the office of Alabama's Securities Commissioner. After being charged and convicted for white-collar crime, Bertfort spent close to two years in a Federal prison for the criminal acts of securities fraud and money laundering. While in prison, Belfort wrote a manuscript that would later become a 2008 bestseller titled 'The Wolf of Wall Street' followed by the sequel 'Catching the Wolf of Wall Street'. In addition to Federal prison time, Belfort was ordered to pay back over 110 million dollars that were obtained fraudulently. As of 2013, Belfort, has been accused of being delayed in paying back the money he obtained fraudulently and some people claim that he is seeking relief from the ruling that ordered him to pay back half of what he stole from investors.

Today, Jordan Belfort is an writer, consultant and motivational speaker who has written about the importance of corporate ethics in several American and international newspapers and magazines. Through his firm Straight Line, Belfort trains and educates executives about how to use high-return sales tactics to generate wealth in an ethical manner. He also speaks at some of the most prestigious CXO-level conferences and seminars around the world. His life has been portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 film 'The Wolf of Wall Street'. Read this blog post about the book here