When watching The Wolf of Wall Street, many viewers will be left with one key question.
“Just how much money did Jordan Belfort make from ‘penny stocks’ in real life?”
The Martin Scorsese classic, which was added to Netflix just today, followed the real life of stockbroker Jordan Belfort.
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Belfort was arrested in 1999 for defrauding well over 1,000 clients and committing money laundering.
The stockbroker was best known for his founding of the firm Stratton Oakmont, which at one point was dealing with well over $1 billion in stock issues.
The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, followed his journey from a brand-new broker to a multi-millionaire to being caught out for his illegal exploits.
A major focus of the movie, and in real life, was his exploitation of the sky-high commissions for ‘penny stocks’. These low-value stocks are worth less than five dollars per share, or of an overall valuation lower than $300 million.
Belfort amassed his early fortunes in penny stocks, taking advantage of their volatility to get rich off facilitating their purchase, but leaving the investors who bought them open to major financial losses.
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The fraud Belfort was accused of in real life that landed him in prison involved pump-and-dump schemes surrounding penny stocks.
This would involve Stratton Oakmont using deception and false recommendations to artificially increase the value of a stock, causing their clients to purchase it and increase its value.
When it reached a peak, they would sell their stocks at their maximum value, causing it to crash and lose much of its value.
It is estimated that Belfort and his associates cost their clients $200,000,000 in this time, with him being forced to pay $110,000,000 in restitution to them.
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When recently asked about penny stocks specifically, the real-life Wolf of Wall Street said: “I think that by and large almost all penny stocks are garbage, that’s my opinion.
"Knowing the penny stock world really well, I think that for the most part penny stocks are not designed to work. They’re designed to enrich the people that issue them."
Belfort’s earnings from his time at Stratton Oakmont are widely disputed, but undoubtedly ran into the tens of millions.
The company generated roughly $100,000,000 annually at its peak and employed 1,000s of employees, some of whom on exorbitant salaries.
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Belfort admitted on TikTok that he once made $22,000,000 in a matter of ten seconds, however, this was due to ‘meticulous’ planning.
His net worth was estimated to be around $200,000,000 – but some believe that factoring in the money he embezzled, he could’ve been worth up to $1 billion.
The film, based on his life and exploits, earned an Oscar nomination for DiCaprio and was recently included in the New York Times list of the top 100 films of the century.
Matt Zoller Seitz, writing for RogerEbert.com, said in his 3.5/4 star review of the film: “One of the most entertaining films ever made about loathsome men.”
Wolf of Wall Street is available to watch on Netflix now.
Topics: Netflix, Leonardo DiCaprio, Film, TV and Film, Money
Michael Slavin