Belfort also wasn’t reckless or dumb enough to attempt to bribe an FBI agent, as depicted in the film. He would often use his health problems as a partial excuse for abusing various substances, but the film downplays his reliance on pharmaceuticals to alleviate his chronic pain. In an effort to perhaps make Belfort seem a bit less crazed than his on-screen persona, it should be mentioned that despite the film citing “back pain” in air quotes as a reason for his drug habit, Belfort really did have constant back issues that required multiple surgeries. His first memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, was published in 2007. Eventually, Belfort was caught by the FBI and after serving 22 months in federal prison, became a writer and motivational speaker. He later married the Duchess, and they had a tumultuous relationship filled with deceit and abuse that ended in divorce. He cheated on his first wife with a woman nicknamed “The Duchess of Bay Ridge,” played by Margot Robbie in the film. While all this was happening in his professional life, Belfort’s personal life was plagued by addictions to numerous illegal substances, primarily cocaine and Quaaludes.

He recruited young, mostly working-class kids from Long Island to work at Stratton and indoctrinated them into what he repeatedly calls, in his 2007 memoir, a “cult.” They were taught to worship at the altar of money and to con their clients into buying worthless stock. Belfort was violating probably hundreds of laws at any given time, most of which involved defrauding his shareholders and manipulating the stock of dozens of companies.

The overall story of Jordan Belfort ( Leonardo DiCaprio) and his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, as presented in Scorsese’s film, is true to life.

Belfort the wolf of wall street