Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, convicted stockbroker Jordan Belcourt,

a .k .a. the Wolf of Wall Street.

He is funny, colorful, he can be charming as long as you stay ten feet

your wallet in your back pocket. I had a gift to get up before the crowd and

sell, manipulate.

And I could have used it for good or I could have used it for evil. I used it

for evil. When Hollywood turns his life of sex, drugs, and crime into a

blockbuster,

His victims feel cheated again.

Too many people walk out of a movie and think they have seen the story. And it

leaves out significant parts of the story, not the least of which is 1 ,500

people that lost real money.

He was about as close as you could come to being the financial serial killer.

This wild party looks like an early 90s beer commercial written by a teenage boy

and funded by an oil baron.

Yes, that's a helicopter landing on a yacht.

What a great life, huh?

But this is no fantasy.

It's just another day in the life of Jordan Belfort, head of the brokerage

Stratton Oakmont.

If we all stick together, next year at this time, we'll be a legend on Wall

Street, guys, and that's our goal.

All right?

It's an unbelievable turnaround for the young master of the universe.

Just four years ago, Belfort was at rock bottom.

It's late October 1987.

25 -year -old Jordan Belfort prepares for his first day as a stockbroker at

prestigious Wall Street firm L .F. Rothschild.

The enthusiastic young man recently passed his Series 7 exam and is eager to

begin a career in the world of high finance, as he tells CNBC's Jane Wells

2007 interview.

My first day I walk in, and I watch people in their mid to late 20s making

a million, a million dollars a year in this raging bull market of the mid -80s.

Belfort is a born salesman.

The son of two accountants from Bayside, Queens.

He ran his own meat and seafood delivery business before making the leap to Wall

Street.

This guy was driven from the get -go. He's very eager to please.

He was in many ways self -taught. You knew you could sell. Knew I could sell.

You know, this is going to be my future. I'm going to be a broker. Look at all

these people getting rich. It'll be me too.

But in a cruel turn of events, Belfort tells Wells that his first day on the

is Black Monday, October 19, 1987.

That Monday morning, I come in bright -eyed and bushy -tailed, and the market

crashes 508 points on my first day as a stockbroker.

Okay, and all of a sudden, everyone's like, it's over.

The new broker is soon out of work, but refuses to give up.

While flipping through the classifieds, Belfort's wife spots a job 30 miles away

in Hoppog, Long Island.

I answered the ad. I went down to this place, and I walked in. I was shocked.

I was utterly shocked, and it was the first time I really walked into a penny

stock firm.

The firm is the Investor Center, a penny stock shop that pushes risky, small

-time businesses for anywhere from 10 to 99 cents a share.

Much to Belfort's surprise, he learns that the brokers make a healthy

commission. As the manager explained to me, he's like, listen, your commission

is, you get 50 % of the bid in the end.

And I'm like...

So if someone sends in a quarter million dollars in a trade, I get to keep 125

,000? He's like, well, yeah, and no, it doesn't really work that way in the real

world. No one will send that much money in for a penny stock.

The manager tells Belfort only small -time investors buy penny stocks.

But that doesn't stop the young broker from dreaming big.

I was literally lying in bed one day and the light bulb went off. And I remember

lying in bed looking up at the ceiling saying, I wonder what would happen if we

just started calling all rich people.

In 1989, at the age of 27, Belfort puts his theory to the test.

He starts up his own brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont, with his friend Danny

Porish and a dozen salesmen from Long Island.

The company eventually opens an office in the appropriately named village of

Lake Success.

We went out and bought these, they were called Dun & Bradstreet Leaves, and they

were the names of business owners that had...

businesses in excess of a million dollars a year in sales.

And that became our target market.

To his dismay, Belfort discovers that his former boss was correct.

Wealthy investors don't buy penny stocks.

And that night, I went home and it hit me. And I said, you know what? I know

what's wrong.

They never heard of the stock.

They never heard of the broker term. You're fighting too much of an uphill

battle. What we need to do is we need to start off with a big stock.

Belfort writes a new pitch for his brokers, one that emphasizes building

with clients through established blue -chip stocks.

The technique becomes known as the Stratton two -step.

The blue -chips were used to basically lure the people in. That was what they

called the first trade.

They would do it with an IBM or an Eastman Kodak, for example. Those are

companies that everybody knows about.

Gregory Coleman is an FBI special agent who spent years investigating Stratton's

sales methods.

Once clients make a little money on the blue -chip stocks, Coleman says

Stratton's brokers then focus on the real business at hand, pitching the more

profitable penny stocks.

Once the customer sent the money in, shortly thereafter they would get a call

about a second trade.

But rather than pitching existing penny stocks, Belford and Porish start

underwriting their own initial public offerings.

Stratton's house stocks often feature businesses like karate schools,

independent movie studios, backyard technology startups.

He'd sneak in these IPOs, these obscure little IPOs, and he would say, oh, you

know, I'm telling you, you can get in, it doesn't cost very much, you're going

to make a lot of money, trust me.

Belford would put their spin on it. His brokers would put their spin on it. And

so these sort of undiscovered, unknown companies were touted as the next

Microsoft, the next Dell computers.

In an unusual move, Stratton sets the IPO prices well above a typical penny

stock offering.

He would try and get them listed on the NASDAQ over the National Market

Exchange. So although they were the same type of companies, they weren't selling

at 5, 10, 15 cents per share. They would start at $4, $5, and $6.

Belfort's talent for spinning a tail makes for a winning strategy.

Under his direction, it's not unusual for the value of Stratton's house stocks

to skyrocket, reaching $10, $15, even $20 a share.

In just a matter of months, the company is making a killing on these diamonds in

the rough.

I always say brokers don't sell stocks.

Brokers sell a story.

And once they convince the public of the story, the public buys the stocks.

And that's what Belfort did.

Next on American Greed, the lure of quick and easy cash sends Belfort down a

reckless path.

At one point, I would wake up pretty much every day and try to think of new

schemes that I could pull and new ways to rip people off.

It's not Wall Street.

But in the early 1990s, Lake Success, Long Island is a hotspot for aspiring

young stockbrokers.

Under the leadership of Jordan Belfort, Stratton Oakmont becomes known as the

place where you can make big cash by selling the hottest new stocks.

In 1991, the company makes commission revenues of nearly $30 million.

I was the best training ground for stockbrokers. You know, go to Stratton,

become a trained killer.

But Stratton isn't your typical brokery.

Rather than employ Wall Street veterans, they instead have a unique hiring

process.

Stratton did something different.

They wanted basically uneducated, unexperienced people to join their firm.

You didn't even need a college degree?

You didn't need a high school diploma.

You didn't need anything.

All you needed was to come into the room, swear loyalty to the Stratton way

life, and we would show you how to get rich.

They basically wanted...

wanted us stupid so they could train us in their model.

Carl is a former Stratton employee who says he's gone on to be a respected

businessman and requests anonymity. He remembers the frenzy surrounding his

first day on the job.

They would bring in everybody for job interviews, and they would put you in a

room. They would ask, is anybody licensed in any other brokerage firm

And if anybody raised their hand...

We'd throw them out right then and there.

New employees are assigned to work the phones as cold callers, feeding clients

to Belfort and the other salesmen.

At its height, Stratton Oakmont employs more than 1 ,000 people, mostly young

men.

We walk into this huge room, and all it is is guys sitting at tables. We were

given leads to call, and we called our leads.

I had to get people on the phone all day long.

The work is tedious, but the rewards are high, especially if you get promoted to

broker.

One kid that I knew who was there was barely 22 years old, driving a brand

-new Ferrari.

Another kid who was 24 driving a Porsche.

There were so many kids, and everyone was making so much money. It was almost

like a self -contained society. In a way, it was like a cult.

And Jordan Belfort is the cult leader.

Every morning, Belfort delivers a fiery motivational speech, rallying the troops

around the hot stock of the day.

He would convince them that they were going to sell, sell, sell that stock.

were supposed to rip the client's hearts out through the phone. I said to my

broker, okay.

I want you to do this, I want you to do that, I want you to rip their heads off.

Which, by the way, I stole from the movie Wall Street. That was the best

ever, I thought. So I had to kind of use those words to be like Michael Douglas.

Because they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered.

Reading from Belfort Scripts, Stratton's army connects with clients across the

country.

Callers are expected to follow Belfort Scripts down to the word.

We always figured ourselves as movie actors. We were given a script every

and we would pitch whatever stock they told us to pitch.

Belford calls his sales technique the straight -line philosophy.

Callers are taught to do whatever it takes to close the deal.

Stratton prints out ready -made comebacks to client excuses like, I

this company, I have another broker, and let me talk to my wife.

You know, we would always say, I understand, Mr. Jones. Let me ask you,

would your wife be the most happiest with?

Would your wife be happy with you making a good investment and making money on

your investments and on your future? Yes.

Well, that's exactly what I'm looking to do here for you today.

Bob Sharon is the owner of a woman's garment company in Los Angeles.

In March of 1992, he gets an unexpected phone call from a Stratton broker.

Your name was given to me by a classmate from Harvard Business School.

And he said, I made him a lot of money in stock, and he gave me your name. Are

you interested?

Bob's business has recently had a good run.

He's sitting on some extra cash and jumped at the opportunity to expand his

portfolio.

Without ever checking in with his old college pal, Bob agrees to buy 300

of a blue -chip pharmaceutical company.

I know I bought 300 shares and it was, I want to say, $9 ,000

and I made $11 ,000.

So, okay, feeling pretty good.

Soon after, Bob invests over $7 ,000 on a Stratton house stock, another

pharmaceutical company, and makes a $3 ,000 profit.

Riding a winning streak, Bob's broker convinces him it's time to go big.

They were very good at figuring your trigger points.

Mine was, I'm an intelligent risk taker and will reap the rewards from taking

those risks.

Bob invests $65 ,000 on another can't -miss Stratton house stock,

DVI Health Services.

My impressions are this could be big.

This could be a 25%, 30 % returns.

This warrants some big money.

In the Chicago suburbs, Tom Boccorne has a similar encounter with a Stratton

broker.

A married father of two, Tom recently purchased his father's construction

business. The company is successful, doing upwards of $25 million a year in

business. But Tom needs cash to pay back his father.

I had bought the company for, I think, a million five, and I had to pay it off.

So I was looking for other ways to do it.

The broker encourages Tom to invest $20 ,000 in a blue chip stock.

Within days, he makes a 10 % return.

The broker then pitches Tom on a hot Stratton IPO,

Aqua Natural, a water purification company.

You go to a grocery store, and you bring in your own containers, and you fill

up. With pure water.

I thought that was a good idea because the local grocery store did have it

around here.

The stock is another winner.

Tom doubles his investment in just four days.

His broker suggests he rolled his earnings into other Stratton House

I think after the first month I was up to a few hundred thousand. It was easy

money.

Coming up on American Greed.

While Stratton's clients are enjoying their newfound wealth, back on Long

Island, the brokers find creative ways to celebrate their success. Money,

partying, quaaludes, cocaine.

I mean, it's like a young man's fantasy.

Before he turns 30 years old, Jordan Belfort is making $20 million a year as

head of Stratton Oakmont.

Befitting a man of great wealth, he buys a waterfront mansion in the Hamptons.

His main residence is a $1 .7 million mansion in the wealthy village of Old

Brookville. And I bought the house from Richie Grasso, back then was the

president of the New York Stock Exchange.

He even upgrades his marriage.

Belfort divorces his first love and marries a beer commercial model, who he

affectionately calls the Duchess.

That's mine.

Among his toys is a Ferrari Testarossa, just like Don Johnson drives in Miami

Vice.

And a 167 -foot yacht that once belonged to Coco Chanel.

And my wife begged me not to buy it, which is why I had to buy it. Because

she said, you can't. I said, I got to buy it. So I wrote the check right away

for the yacht. For how much?

Five and a half million.

With so much cash on hand, Belfort develops another expensive habit.

Drug addiction.

Belfort dabbles in cocaine and prescription medications.

But his favorite vice is Quaalude.

He used the 1970s -era sedative and party drug nearly every day, often

himself a drooling mess.

I had this rip -roaring drug habit. I used to go scuba diving on five

I was on the bottom. I couldn't come up because I was so stoned. He was flying a

helicopter on quaaludes without a pilot's license and lived.

He told me he was taking 22 different drugs at one point. I don't know how

that's physically possible.

The party continues back at the Stratton offices.

The atmosphere often resembles a fraternity house rather than a

brokerage. It was really just a culture of debauchery and what the

drug dealers have in there.

Sex in the office is common.

Young female assistants are passed around almost as much as the drugs.

Belfort once offers a female broker $10 ,000 to shave her head.

Other employees are paid to perform outrageous stunts.

I remember somebody bringing in a thing like in the carnivals where you could

get electrocuted and they would pay someone $10 ,000 if they could hold it

way. Somehow you just had a group of 13 -year -old boys who never grew up.

Making this outrageous decadence possible is the lucrative IPOs that

underwrites.

Stratton ultimately takes 34 companies public, and nearly every one is a

But Stratton's success isn't what it appears to be.

For years, they've manipulated every facet of their house stocks.

Stratton was a classic pump -and -dump securities firm.

Joel Cohen is a former assistant United States attorney who eventually

prosecutes Belfort.

They would pump up the price of the stock by getting innocent investors to

it based upon blatantly false representations about what it was worth.

The Fed says Stratton has been running the scam since the firm's earliest days.

In order for Belfort to manipulate his security offerings, it relates to supply

and demand.

What Belfort does is he has to constrict the supply. He has to reduce the supply

while simultaneously increasing the demand.

The demand side is easy.

Stratton pays its young employees big commissions to push the risky stocks and

drive up their price.

So the question becomes, how does Belfort constrict the supply?

According to the feds, Stratton secretly hoards massive amounts of new issue

stock before it goes public.

Belfort sashes the shares with accomplices he calls...

Rat holes.

Many of them were friends. Some of them were people that sold them cars. One

famously was the house Quaaludes dealer for the Stratton Oakmont firm.

Rat holes are instructed to hold on to the shares until Stratton is able to

up the price of the stock.

A rat hole may get 100 ,000 shares.

They would get the stock at 5.

It would go to 10. It would go to 15. It would go to 20. It would go to 25.

And when it got to 25, they would then flip it back to Stratton.

At the peak price, Stratton then sells the rat hole shares to unsuspecting

investors.

The increase in volume eventually causes the price to plummet, leaving investors

holding massive quantities of worthless stock.

So all of the rat holes would make huge profits off of a stock that in fact was

worth nothing or next to nothing, and then the entire price would collapse

thereafter because there was no legitimate market for these stocks other

the victims.

As part of the arrangement, rat holes agree to give the profits back to

while receiving a kickback in return for their assistance.

For many of them, they would get a check for $25 ,000 or $50 ,000 or cash for

$100 ,000, some piece of the profits.

Investors like Bob Sharon have no idea they're pawns in Stratton's game.

After making a profit on his initial investments, Bob gradually starts losing

money on all his Stratton house stocks.

He calls his broker to sell his shares, but they won't comply.

At first, he's insisting that, no, no, no, you can't get out, you've got to do

this, that we've got bigger ones here. But now, by then, I probably had $250

,000 tied up in.

The next day, he discovers that his broker sold the shares, but then flipped

into another stock without his consent.

The new stock is plummeting even faster than before.

Now we were just, I mean, screaming at the top of our lungs at each other, and

him screaming back, or too good to ever make any money in anything, you know,

you're a worthless piece of crap.

Bob eventually gets his broker to return what money he has left, around $80

,000.

But his losses are well over $100 ,000.

Outside of Chicago, Tom Bocconi's losses are even greater.

Well, I had an account there with about a million in it, and one day they just

took it all and put it in stocks, two different stocks, two or three different

stocks. And then within days, it was almost gone.

In late 1991, the Securities and Exchange Commission is officially

the firm after receiving numerous complaints.

Several months later, the FBI is brought in when it's determined that Stratton's

misdeeds are greater than previously thought.

We weren't involved in securities cases before that. It was mid -1992. They

formed a brand new squad whose sole function was to investigate Wall Street

-related crimes.

Next on American Greed, feeling the heat, Jordan Belfort devises an

international plan to stash his ill -gotten cash.

In the criminal insanity of breaking the law, it was like, oh, well, you know,

next step, Switzerland.

After three years of illegally raking in the cash,

The heat is now on Stratton Oakmont.

Several investors have filed complaints against the firm, and many have sought

settlements.

The SEC sends agents to the brokerage to scour their records, but Belfort makes

their stay an uncomfortable one.

He cranks the air conditioning to freezing levels and bugs the room.

I said, these guys are dumb enough to set up shop in my own conference room.

They're going to run their investigation.

They kind of deserved it, I thought.

While the SEC investigates, Belfort makes plans to protect his fortune.

In August 1993, he flies to Europe to meet with officials at a private bank in

Geneva, Switzerland.

Belfort was schooled on different ways of setting up bank accounts and

corporations through these people in Switzerland to hide and disguise his

Belfort's wife has an aunt who lives in London, a 65 -year -old retired

schoolteacher.

Belfort opens a Swiss bank account in the woman's name.

According to Belfort, he just sort of represented that he was trying to evade

some taxes, and she agreed to do it. What did your wife's aunt think of the

whole thing?

Oh, she thought it was fabulous.

Over the next year, Belfort begins smuggling cash to the bank through his

Quaalude dealer.

whose wife is a Swiss citizen.

She was born, raised, and grew up in Switzerland. She spoke French. She knew

way around the banking system.

So it was sort of the perfect couple to bring in.

The FBI says the couple transport over $1 .3 million overseas.

Almost all of it was done in suitcases.

It was done, they would hide it in their socks and different bags. They would

break it up among different pieces of luggage.

In December 1993, Belfort finds himself flush with even more cash when Stratton

embarks on one of its biggest IPOs yet, Steve Madden Shoes. Steve Madden was a

good story. They used to call him the cobbler, the guy who's selling shoes out

of the trunk of his car. Unlike most of the Stratton deals, it actually had

value and a real idea with products that people really want to buy.

Madden is a childhood friend of Belfort's right -hand man, Danny Porish.

He's worked as a rat hole for Stratton over the past two years.

But on this day, it's his company that's the star of the show.

Stratton's army of callers can't sell the shares fast enough.

Bellport claims Stratton makes $23 million in just two hours.

Stock was manipulated in the same ways that the other IPOs that Stratton

controlled were manipulated.

But the good times don't last long.

In February 1994, the SEC has enough evidence to take Stratton to court for

securities fraud.

Stratton's shelf life was short. The lawsuits were building up against them.

They could hear the footsteps.

Under pressure, Stratton agrees to a settlement with the agency.

The company doesn't admit to any wrongdoing, but it agrees to pay a $2 .5

million penalty.

As part of the agreement, Belfort must personally pay a $100 ,000 fine and

the company he founded.

In 1994, Belfort's barred from the business for life.

They really put a great spin on it, you know, that he could have won, he could

have beat it, but he didn't want to drag Stratton down, so he's going to step

down for the good of the firm.

In the aftermath of the judgment, Stratton arranges a deal to pay Belfort

whopping $180 million for his stake in the company.

He'll be paid $12 million a year over the next 15 years.

This is $180 million for a company that had no intrinsic value. If you take away

manipulation, the only thing that company was worth was the rent on a

in a parking lot in suburban Long Island.

Danny Porridge is officially named the head of Stratton. But despite the

Belfort is far from being out of the picture.

What he was doing was operating Stratton from behind the scenes, just no longer

coming to the office, but fully participating in all the remaining IPOs

did. It didn't miss a beat, really, because we always figured that Belfort

really in charge anyway.

With the civil case settled, the FBI continues to pursue criminal charges

against Belford and Stratton.

But its case is proving to be difficult.

Because the brokers and the other employees were making so much money, he

lured them in and he created a very loyal following.

So there was no incentive to cooperate with us at all.

Next on American Greed, while Belfort sits back and counts his cash, the FBI

gets an unexpected break in their case.

I remember making that call, and they were extremely excited that we had the

evidence of which we had.

How else did Jordan Belfort spend his dirty money?

Find out at cnbcprime .com slash American Greed.

Feeling greedy?

Want more than your shirt of behind -the -scenes dirt?

Follow us at American Greed TV on Twitter.

We'll be right there.

By 1994, Jordan Belfort finds himself in a peculiar place.

Despite being barred from the securities industry, he's still making millions

off his connections to Stratton Oakmont.

On paper, my net worth was just off the charts. I had, like, stakes in 20

different companies. Half of them were public, half of them were about to go

public. I had cash in the bank. So on paper, you were worth? I had to hide,

like, $200 -something million.

But Belfort also knows that it could come tumbling down at any minute.

While he manages to get away from the SEC, FBI agent Gregory Coleman is on his

tail, and Belfort isn't enjoying the chase.

I would hear about Coleman knocked on this door or that door. And I was like,

my luck, I get the guy. I get Tommy Lee Jones chasing me. That's how I felt,

okay?

While Belfort continually looks over his shoulder, an unlikely and completely

unrelated event all but seals his fate.

A thousand miles away in Miami, U .S. Customs agents are working an undercover

money laundering case involving a South American drug cartel.

We were purporting to be.

Narcotics smugglers. So we were soliciting in a sting type of provision

Swiss bankers.

David Marwell is a special agent in charge for Homeland Security and a

special agent with the U .S. Customs Service. So in November of 1994.

At the culmination of the investigation, we arrested a multitude of people, as

well as a couple of Swiss bankers at the time in Florida.

Belfort's banker just happens to be one of the men arrested. With his back

against the wall, the Swiss banker opens the vault on his secrets, telling the

feds that Jordan Belfort is one of his clients.

Marwell calls the SEC to deliver the news.

The SEC was kind of shocked.

And they immediately said, you've got to reach out to this FBI agent by the name

of Greg Coleman. Agent Coleman has long suspected Belfort is illegally moving

cash overseas.

He now has proof.

It confirmed our suspicions. It confirmed that I was not going down a

was going to lead to a dead end. So it was, in some senses, a very big score.

While the FBI solidifies its case... In 1996, the end finally arrives for

Stratton Oakmont.

In June, the National Association of Securities Dealers begins proceedings

against the firm for their fraudulent activities.

By December, Stratton is expelled from the industry, closing its doors for

And everyone knew it was coming. We thought we were being persecuted

of course.

Obviously, we weren't.

In the fall of 1998, the FBI and Department of Justice finally have all

information they need to take Belfort down.

At September, the FBI arrest Jordan Belfort and Danny Porridge for money

laundering and securities fraud.

Their bail is set at $10 million each.

Belfort came up with the money within three days.

He just put up $10 million in cash and jewels and a brink truck had arrived

his wife's jewelry.

The feds tell Belfort they know everything.

The money laundering, the Swiss banker, the rat holes.

Faced with the threat of 25 years in prison, Belfort makes a decision.

Do you fight it? Do you plea?

Or do you cooperate?

And in my mind, you know, fighting it wasn't really an option. It was the

toughest decision that I ever had to make. I didn't really have much of a

choice.

Belfort agrees to cooperate with the feds, telling them intimate details of

the scam operated.

The hard thing was doing it in an orderly way because there was so much to

cover. There were so many entrails to the fraud they were engaged in. Over the

next 12 months, the wolf becomes a rat.

Belfort agrees to wear a wire and meet with his friends and associates.

Several former Strattonites are now running their own crooked firms.

where they continue the scams they learn from their mentors.

They were actually operating four or five other firms, which were

the same kinds of fraud. And we wanted to stop that crime from happening

it was spreading.

Belfort secretly tapes dozens of conversations, such as this meeting in

associate offers to hide Belfort's money in Asia.

He became actually a very, very good cooperator. He made tapes, many, many

telephone tapes, many body recordings for us against a number of people.

In September 1999,

Belfort and Porish officially plead guilty to securities fraud and money

laundering. The men admit they manipulated the stocks of 34 companies,

investors over $200 million.

The exact number of victims is unknown, but it's believed to be more than 1 ,500

people.

Well, there were dozens, probably hundreds and hundreds of investors who

the bulk of their life savings because of what these guys did.

Next on American Greed, Jordan Belfort goes to prison and experiences some high

times while in the joint.

Now, this is how crazy the Jordan Belfort story is.

The Quaaludes, the parties, and then when he goes to prison, who is his

cellmate? Tommy Chom.

In 2003, almost four years after pleading guilty to running a stock,

dump scheme, Jordan Belfort and Danny Porish are both sentenced to four years

federal prison.

Despite stealing over $200 million, the men avoid a lengthy sentence.

Back in the time frame that Belfort and Porridge were sentenced, it really just

was not viewed as a serious crime as it is now.

Their cooperation with the government significantly reduces the sentences.

Thanks to their assistance, the Department of Justice is able to get

on dozens of Belfort's associates.

There were probably 75 people that were prosecuted, people in the securities

industry, accountants, lawyers.

As part of their punishment, Belfort and Porish must jointly pay $110 million in

restitution. The men are required to pay 50 % of all future earnings toward the

fund. The first down payment is made when the government seizes more than $10

million worth of assets from Belfort.

Cars, houses, jewelry, bank accounts, all of those assets are ultimately

forfeited to the government.

Belfort's home in Old Brookville was seized by us. His beach home in

Southampton, Long Island. In 2004, Belfort is sent to the Taft Federal

Correctional Institution outside of Bakersfield, California.

After living a drug -fueled existence for most of the past decade, it's only

fitting that his cellmate is none other than Tommy Chong.

One half of the stoner comedy duo Cheech and Chong.

Of all the inmates in the entire federal prison system, he gets Tommy Chong as

his cellmate, who was in prison for, I think, selling bongs across state lines

back then.

While in prison, Belfort entertains his cellmate with wild tales of life at

Stratton. The two become close friends.

You know, what do you do when you're in jail? You have a lot of time, so you

tell stories. I would tell him stories, and he would tell me stories. I mean, he

would say to me, God, you should write a book.

Belfort follows Chong's advice and starts putting pen to paper.

He also enters a prison rehab program.

After 22 months behind bars, Jordan Belfort is released early for good

I think he should have been in jail longer. I mean, two years.

Two years for wrecking thousands of people's lives.

Upon release, Belfort moves to Manhattan Beach, California, just south of Los

Angeles, where he finishes writing his autobiography.

In 2007, Random House publishes his first book, The Wolf of Wall Street.

It's a vulgar and hedonistic romp filled with sex, drugs, and deviant behavior.

I was just writing the truth as it came out of my head.

And this is what I wrote. And then suddenly I looked back and I'm like, oh,

it was true.

Those who know Belfort find the book's title amusing.

Never heard anybody call him the Wolf of Wall Street. The first time I learned

of it was when I picked up a copy of his book and came to learn that he was

claiming that that was his nickname.

The book is a modest success, but it generates plenty of buzz.

In 2007, Jane Wells interviews Belfort on his book tour.

He says he's a changed man.

I believe everyone is entitled to be forgiven.

I didn't murder anybody.

It's not as bad as that. It's not. It was a financial crime. I have a chance

maybe not reverse what I did, but to try to make good on it.

In December 2013, Belfort's life story hits the silver screen at Martin

Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. I have offered our lovely sales assistant,

Danielle Harrison, here $10 ,000 to shave off your fucking eyes!

The film is a hit, grossing nearly $400 million worldwide.

Belfort is paid just over $1 million for the movie rights and other fees.

For the end of the film, Belfort himself makes a cameo. The world's greatest

sales trainer, Mr.

Jordan Belfort!

And to me, the most astounding part of that was that they're basically doing

what amounts to an advertisement pitch for Belfort's motivational speaking

company. Since his release from prison, the convicted felon has built a

lucrative second career as a motivational speaker.

Belfort claims he's paid $30 ,000 per engagement, mostly speaking about

ethics and how to use his straight -line sales technique.

So I want you to feel confident that once you master this skill, it's going

change your life on every level.

Admirers pay anywhere from $50 ,000 to $2 ,000 for the experience.

Belfort maintains that he's determined to pay off his debts.

Yeah, listen, I think this movie for that is an amazing thing because I'm

100 % of all the profits from the movie and both books. And the books is

really... You are compelled to give, and if I'm wrong...

50 % of all your growth earnings straight to paying back. Is that not

anymore? That's not right. Was it ever the case? Yeah, before I was on

probation. But now you're on probation, you're no longer compelled to legally.

Not legally.

But the government says Belfort is spinning another tale.

In October 2013, the Department of Justice files court papers saying

still legally obligated to pay 50 % of his income.

They say he has contributed just $11 .6 million to the restitution fund, more

than $10 million of that coming from the seizure of his assets a decade ago.

And I just have no doubt that if it's up to him, he won't be giving the money

back to the victims. The government says Belfort pays just $21 ,000 from his

million -dollar movie deal in 2011.

In 2010, they say he pays nothing at all.

What I see and hear from him is a man who mouths the word remorse, uses the

remorse, but doesn't act on it. He hasn't been repaying his victims.

The matter is still being negotiated.

Jordan Belfort declined American Greed's request for an interview.

Former Stratton investors say seeing Belfort in the spotlight has opened up

wounds again.

Tom Picorni lost $800 ,000 to Stratton.

He believes his financial difficulties cost him his marriage.

After about the first three or four years, I basically tried to block it

His movie came up, and that's when I started getting phone calls from

on it. And then my oldest son saw him on TV where he said he paid everybody

back. And that kind of made me mad because he hasn't paid anybody back.

Bob Sharon actually lives just a few miles from Belford.

Their kids even attended the same school.

But Sharon says he has no desire to confront the man who stole more than

,000 from him.

What am I going to go up to him and say, you know, Jordan, you owe me $130 ,000.

Would you please write me a check?

I don't sit around with resentment because then I would lose twice.

You know, I lost the money. I don't need to lose peace of mind by harboring a

lot of resentment about it.

As for Agent Coleman, he says he hopes Belfort's new business ventures are

legit. If he makes more money at what he's doing, he can pay back more victim

investors. I hope what he does for the rest of his life is clean and he stays

out of trouble, because if he ever steps over the line, I want him to know I'll

be there to arrest him again.

An unvarnished look at the commerce of crime.

It's $300 to $500 billion a year business, and I just want a little piece

American Bikes, coming up next.

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