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Jordan BelfortAmerican motivational speaker and former broker.
Country:
 USA |
Content:
Biography of Jordan Belfort
Early LifeJordan Ross Belfort was born on July 9, 1962, in the Bronx, New York, USA, to a Jewish family. His parents, Max and Leah Belfort, worked as accountants, and Leah later became a lawyer. Jordan grew up in Bayside, a neighborhood in New York City.
Entrepreneurial Beginnings
From a young age, Belfort showed a knack for entrepreneurship. After graduating from high school, he and his close friend Elliot Loewenstern earned $20,000 selling a dessert called "Italian ice" at the beach. Despite his interest in economics, Belfort enrolled in American University in Washington, D.C., majoring in biology. He obtained a degree in biology but did not find success in his brief studies in dentistry at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, as he realized he wanted to make a lot of money without putting in much effort.
Career in Finance
Belfort's first steps in the business world were on Long Island, New York, where he opened a meat and seafood sales outlet. Initially, the business thrived, but sales plummeted, leading to its closure. At the age of 25, Belfort declared bankruptcy. A family friend helped him secure a job as a trainee broker at L.F. Rothschild. However, after the stock market crash on October 19, 1987, known as Black Monday, Belfort was let go from L.F. Rothschild.
In the late 1980s, Belfort founded the "over-the-counter" brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, which operated by selling stocks over the phone. The firm's employees used deceitful and cunning tactics to convince clients to sell them stocks at low prices, which they later sold for large profits. Belfort's pursuit of easy money led him to indulge in a lavish lifestyle filled with parties, alcohol, and drugs, particularly his addiction to Quaaludes.
As the years went by, Stratton Oakmont's operations grew rapidly. By the 1990s, the firm employed over a thousand people, and its financial operations exceeded a billion dollars. However, this rapid wealth accumulation attracted the attention of the FBI, leading to an investigation into Belfort and his company. In 1998, the fraudulent activities of Stratton Oakmont were exposed, and Jordan Belfort was sentenced to four years in prison. Through a cooperation agreement with the FBI, his sentence was reduced to 22 months of incarceration.
Post-Prison Life
While in prison, Belfort met Tommy Chong, a member of the famous comedy duo "Cheech and Chong," who was serving time for selling drug paraphernalia. Chong advised Belfort to write a memoir, which later gained immense popularity and served as the basis for the film "The Wolf of Wall Street."
After his release, Belfort continued his friendship with Chong. He has been married twice in his life. His first wife was Denise Lombardo, whom he divorced in 1991 after rapidly accumulating wealth and meeting British model Nadine Caridi. Belfort married Caridi in the same year, and they had two children together, a daughter named Chandler and a son named Carter James. They divorced in 2005 following Caridi's allegations of domestic violence and infidelity.
Since his release, Belfort has been conducting seminars and motivational speaking engagements, focusing on entrepreneurship and making money. However, the public remains interested in his past and his illegal activities at Stratton Oakmont. Belfort has publicly expressed regret for his actions, acknowledging that greed and a sense of invulnerability led to his downfall. He has returned only a fraction of the $110.4 million he was ordered to pay as restitution, and it remains unknown how and when he plans to settle the remaining debt.
