Discover Jordan Belfort Book Review

By Author: Lyle Stankus
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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.

Jordan Belfort was the son of two Jewish accountants, Max and Leah Belfort, who lived in the Bronx before moving to Long Island later on. Born in the year 1962, Jordan Belfort drew a lot of initiative from his father Max Belfort, and even went on to become the chief executive officer in one of Wall Street's most successful brokerage firms that was eventually found to be fraudulent. While Mr. Belfort headed Stratton Oakmont, Leah switched careers and became a lawyer.

Before he quit college to create his wealth, Jordan Belfort was studying to be a dentist. After working as a salesman for several years, Jordan Belfort started a profitable yet somewhat illegal business of brokering in penny stocks. As the business expanded, he established Stratton Oakmont, a boiler room firm that defrauded investors of more than 200 million dollars. Stratton Oakmont perfected the art of selling ...
... huge amounts of penny stocks to unsuspicious buyers, inflating their prices and selling them at a huge profit margin -- in what is known as 'pump and dump' schemes -- raking up over 50 million per year for himself. Mr. Belfort is considered by finance executives and analysts to be the artificer of the modern Ponzi scheme. At one time, Stratton Oakmont had a staff of over one thousand brokers handling over a billion dollars worth of stocks.

The illegal empire 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 law-breaking, 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 tardy 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.

Nowadays, Jordan Belfort is an writer, consultant and motivational speaker who has written about the importance of corporate morality 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 make 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'. Click here The Wolf Of Wall Street Book