All language subtitles for The.Real.Wolf.of.Wall.Street.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-GRACE_track3_[eng]

[suspenseful music]

- I think I saw

"The Wolf of Wall Street"
movie alone.

I had received a call
from Jordan Belfort

asking me if I wanted
to attend a premiere.

- Martin Scorsese's film,
"The Wolf of Wall Street,"

tells the real life story
of Jordan Belfort.

- The one-time stockbroker
spent 22 months in prison

for fraud
and money laundering.

Leonardo DiCaprio playing you
glamorizes you.

- I'd prefer him than
Danny DeVito playing me.

- $100 million in box office.

- Sex, drugs, bad language,

and people just treating
each other horribly.

- Five Oscar nominations.

- I appeared very, very
briefly in his book,

so I had more than
a little bit of trepidation.

- When I went
to go see the movie,

I felt like wearing

a paper bag
with the eyes cut out.

- Of course,
a Martin Scorsese movie is

shot beautifully from
a technical point of view.

The scenes on Wall Street make
everybody look glamorous.

- I sat in a movie theater
and cried.

- I was watching
my life on screen.

It was surreal.

[intriguing music]

- Are we ready?

Is everyone rolling?

- I solemnly swear--no.
[laughs]

- Hold on for one second.

- I used to get worried
when I heard sirens.

- Those aren't the police
coming for me, right?

Huh?

- Have you ever told your
story publicly before?

- No.

- How's it feel sitting here?

- I'd rather be
in the dentist's chair.

That's pretty bad.
[chuckles]

- Why are you here today?

- Actually, I was there.
I lived the life.

- Kind of asking
for forgiveness, in a way.

- There's a lot of reasons why
somebody would say no to this.

- It's important to get
the story out there

because Jordan called
me a fat fuck in his movie.

- Donnie, that fucking
fat piece of shit.

- A lot of the movie
was bullshit.

This is the truth.

- The story "The Wolf
of Wall Street" tells

is a narrative that
Jordan Belfort created.

- You know the truth
about Jordan Belfort?

He was never called
the Wolf of Wall Street.

- No one ever called
Jordan "Wolf."

- The movie doesn't even
accurately portray

the level of insanity
that occurred.

- There wasn't
enough hookers, drug use.

Really missing from the movie.

- Young people today
think that movie is real.

They admire the person
in that movie.

Show me how you sell me a pen.

- Sell me this fucking
pen right here.

You sell that.

- The movie was just a way
of making him a celebrity,

and he then used that.

- The one thing
I've learned tonight is

how to sell a pen
from the master salesman.

- People don't know
the real Jordan Belfort.

- We got married.
I think I was 23.

The highs were really high.

The lows were really low.

- What's missing
from the movie is

that there is a price to pay.

- In real life,
he destroyed people's lives.

- People lost money.
People got hurt.

- There was fallout
for everyone.

- Did Jordan get away with it?

- Well, God punished
me later in life.

- Now I'm a convicted felon.

- Betrayal.
Here it comes.

- For a lot of people, the
American dream in this story

turned into
the American Nightmare.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

[gentle music]

♪ ♪

- So I've had this video
collection for years.

I was always into taking videos
back in the Hampton days.

Then when I met up
with Jordan in 1991,

I started taking videos of us

with all
the different adventures

that he brought me to.

- My name is Ross Portenoy,

and I had the honor
and pleasure of being

friends with Jordan Belfort
and Nadine Belfort,

AKA the Wolf of Wall Street
and the Duchess.

We had some crazy, wild times.

- And my life was very
surreal during those years.

I was living the lifestyle
of the rich and famous.

The drugs were going around.

It was chaos.
It was wild.

- These tapes have been
with me for 30-some odd years.

- "The Wolf of Wall Street,"
for the most part,

whether it was the book
or the actual movie,

was through Jordan's lens,

and a lot of it is
for Hollywood.

What I lived was
the actual life.

And I'm doing this
today to explain

to the people that idolize him

that you don't know
the other side of him.

- When you picture
Jordan Belfort,

what five words come to mind?

- First of all,
he's not my friend.

- Confident.

- Extremely persuasive.

- Manipulative.

- Very, very smart,
incredibly selfish.

- And arrogant.

- He was a chameleon.

- He's, you know,
the antihero.

- He was constantly high.

- Pays no attention to the law.

- A rat.

- And absolutely no remorse,
no conscience.

- Midget, scumbag,
lying piece of shit,

although I think
I went six words.

- When Stratton first started,

I invented the system
for training salesmen.

We was legit.

We were trying to make
our clients money,

and that was great.

- You know,
he's a great salesman.

He sold garbage,
but he was a great salesman.

- Sales isn't about
what you sell.

You're always just
selling yourself.

- I know him since
I'm ten years old.

We were best friends.

I grew up in his house.
He grew up in mine.

If you've been betrayed

by whoever's the closest person
you've ever had in your life,

you'd get close to why
this is difficult for me.

My name is Andrew Greene--

[grunts]

And I unfortunately fit
right into the middle

of the whole discussion.

The only question is, you know,
what you want to discuss.

But it's not just
Stratton Oakmont for me.

It's very personal.

- Was there a character
based on you in the movie?

- Yes.

- Was it Rugrat?

- I called him Rugrat because
of his piece-of-shit hairpiece.

- First of all, no one
ever called that name to me,

at least to my face.

And if he ever did,
I'd have my foot up his ass.

And he knows it.

I grew up in a great place.

Bayside, New York.

I moved there when I was ten.

Jordan was a different person.

He likes to think
of himself now as, you know,

Mr. Wall Street and debonair.

That wasn't him growing up.

He was the complete opposite.

But he was always smarter
than everyone else.

Got it from his mother.

The place that I grew up
was very competitive.

We would be playing
basketball one day,

baseball, swimming, whatever.

But Jordan wasn't
the greatest athlete.

He was smaller.

And when it came to girls,
you know,

it was a difficult time
for him.

He lacked self-confidence.

Yeah, I hate to tell you,
but when we were growing up,

he would have to put
lifts in his shoes

'cause he was upset
of how short he was.

He would take hormone shots.

To me, it wasn't really
the physical growth.

He needed to grow in here.

We didn't grow up in wealth.

It was a middle-class
neighborhood.

All the things that he had
later on in life,

none of us had.

[up-tempo music]

- Growing up, we used
to hang out at Jones Beach.

The concession stand was
a quarter of a mile

from where the water was.

And to walk that
in the hot, hot weather

to get a drink was crazy.

So along comes this
little guy, Jordan Belfort,

who I knew from my friends
and from Bay Terrace,

selling ices out of a cooler.

- When we were in high school,

we're selling ices
on the beach.

You know, I'd sell
a cooler or two

and sit down and enjoy my day.

He was a fanatic about it.

Italian ices come
in these paper cups,

and he'd squeeze
the bottom of the cup

so he'd have to put
less ices into each cup.

- Jordan realized he now
didn't have to put

two full scoops of ices in,
and nobody knew he was making

literally thousands
of dollars every summer.

- And he really grew
selling ices to an art form.

- In the beginning
when he was young,

Jordan was definitely
a much more humbled Jordan

because he wasn't making

anywhere near
what he wound up making.

He was just starting.

My name is Robert LoRusso.

I met Jordan when I was
maybe 19 or 20 years old.

I would consider us really
very, very close--

almost, I would say,
even best friends.

The Hamptons has
really changed a lot.

When we were growing up,
we would go out there

on weekends to party.

This is the Studio 54 days,
by the way,

so disco was very big.

We would rent a hotel room,
go to the beach the next day.

There were bikini contests.

We were young.

We were in our 20s.

On one occasion,
I was at a club,

and in front of us was Jordan.

We were both trying to get
this one girl's attention.

Um, how can I say this?

And we--let's just say

we became friends
with her together.

Well, she liked both of us,
and we both liked her.

And I think we left the club,
and we spent time together.

That's all.

- All three of you?

- Yes.

- Jordan had
a meat business as well.

He would knock
on people's doors,

and he would say, listen,
I have my boss's truck

full of meat and fresh shrimp.

And if I didn't sell them,
he's going to end up firing me.

I could give you
a great price on it.

Those products were also
a part of a scam

because the 16-ounce steak
only weighed 12 ounces.

He would take water
in a syringe,

and he would inject shrimps
to make them look larger

than they actually were.

- Jordan was an expert at
learning what people wanted

to hear to get them to buy,

whether it's ices,
whether it's steak or stocks.

- After working as
a meat and fish salesman,

he gets a job at
a real Wall Street firm,

L.F. Rothschild.

[percussive music]

Wall Street at that time
was the golden ticket.

It was like an
infinite number of ways

that you could get rich.

Anybody could make money
if they were good and smart.

I'm Pat Hurtado.

I'm a reporter
for Bloomberg News,

and I cover the courts.

- For the last five years,
it's been party time

on Wall Street with
record high after record high.

- Jordan seemed
to be doing well,

but then he had
the unfortunate bad luck

of having worked there
when Black Monday happens.

- In trading rooms on
Wall Street, there was panic.

- The stock market crash cost
investors $500 billion.

- Black Monday was
devastating.

People lost
their life savings.

And it was a huge setback
for Jordan Belfort.

Most of the people
on Wall Street suddenly

found themselves
without a job.

- When I started looking
through

the "help wanted" section,
I stumbled upon an ad

for stockbrokers
out in Long Island.

I didn't even know what it was,
but I was desperate.

- Eventually, Jordan is
able to get a job

at this place called
the Investors Center,

which is right out
of the movie.

- It's 3¢ a share.

That's $3, you cheap fuck!

- It's a boiler room operation,

a high sell, pushy--

get grandma on the phone.

She answers by accident.

A boiler room is when
an army of cold callers

use very aggressive tactics
to sell stocks

to unsuspecting members
of the public.

- Took the job,
and the first day,

shattered the company record.

But this was different
'cause I had this--

this moment of clarity.

I was making a million bucks
a year myself

as a stock broker,

but I could train
any human being,

regardless of age, race, creed,

color,
socioeconomic background,

educational status--
didn't matter.

They could have this much
desire and I could amplify it,

and in six months,
they'd be rich too.

- When Jordan was
at Investor's Center,

I know he was
doing well there.

I remember we had, like,
a little celebration

when he made his first million.

[mellow music]

He bought
the West Hampton house

when he was very young.

So on the weekends,
that's where we would go.

It was pretty much
an open party--

people at the beach,
people in the water,

people in the pool,

people in the bathrooms
doing drugs,

people in the basement
doing drugs,

people upstairs in
the bedrooms doing drugs,

people on the roof doing drugs.

That is what the party
was like.

It was a lot of fun.

♪ ♪

Jordan didn't really talk
much about Investors Center,

but I know he was
making a lot of money.

He's like, I could
just do this myself.

[pensive music]

- In 1989, I got
a call from Jordan,

and he told me he wanted
to start a firm.

What did he need to know?

I'm known as Ike Sorkin.

I started out of law school
at the SEC as a trial attorney.

Hi.

And then I went into
private practice.

At the time, Jordan was
working for Investors Center,

a small boiler room
with a bunch of brokers

who didn't know the difference
between a stock certificate

and a parking ticket.

They were trying
to sell companies

that really had no worth.

And I said to Jordan,
if you wanted to start a firm,

you're gonna get in trouble
if you didn't do it right.

He thanked me,
and he disappeared.

♪ ♪

- In 1989,
Jordan and I met up.

And Jordan said he started
this brokerage firm

called Stratton Oakmont.

I knew a bunch of brokers
working for him.

He recruited most
of the guys from Bayside.

- One day, we were
in Puerto Rico.

Jordan was married
to Denise, his first wife.

They were in love.

They were very active,
from what I remember.

We were chilling in the pool.

The girls were on
their lounge chairs.

And I said,
how's the business going?

He goes, good.

He asked me, do you want
to become a partner?

Maybe $100,000 for 10%,
something like that.

I said, no, you know,

I don't know anything
about that industry.

You know, that decision I made
was probably a good decision,

'cause I'd probably
be in jail right now.

[upbeat music]

- The lessons
Jordan Belfort learned

from the Investors Center,
he took with him,

creating this little
mini-empire out in Long Island

called Stratton Oakmont.

And within a few years,

it was one of the most
successful boiler rooms

in the country.

For many of the people
that he hired,

Jordan Belfort became
their inspirational leader.

- It was crazy
partying going on.

- People snorting coke,
people doing ludes,

traveling the world.

These young brokers all wanted
to live the same lifestyle.

- He's the Pied Piper.

He had these guys march
to his beat of his drum.

- It was a good scene
in the movie where you had

these young kids
coming into the firm,

all looking for jobs.

- What's all this?

- It's the "Forbes" article.

They all want to work
for you now.

- He knew what to say
to a bunch of kids

and promised them
you're all gonna be

millionaires someday.

And people believed him.

- The perfect candidate was
young, dumb,

broke, and hungry.

My name is Howie Gelfand,
and I was at Stratton

from '89 till it closed.

I grew up in Flushing, Queens.

My childhood was
really nothing special

other than the fact that
that's where I started

to become a--
you know, a fat fuck.

The reason we eventually
moved out to Long Island

is because I was stabbed
in the arm with a lead pencil

by a girl in the boys' room
for my lunch money.

Now, a little fat kid,

last thing you want to have
to give up is your lunch money.

And as soon as that happened,
the Jewish mother said,

that's it.

We're packing up, and
we're going to the suburbs.

We moved out to Long Island.

And little by little,
I started to see

how the other half lives.

I was, by far and away,
the poorest kid

in a very wealthy neighborhood.

And I said to myself,
I need to make money.

After high school,
a friend called me and said,

Howie, I have found a job
that is right up your alley.

This is built for you.

When I joined the company,
I was 22.

I was the baby of the bunch,

and there were probably
20 to 25 people

at the company at most.

- I don't know
who said it, but,

if you remember the '60s,

that meant you weren't
really there.

And you could say
the same thing about Stratton.

My name is Richard Bronson,

and after working on
Wall Street for several years,

I ended up working
at Stratton Oakmont.

[lilting orchestral music]

The company that
I first started at

was Shearson Lehman
American Express,

which no longer exists.

And I moved to Bear Stearns,

which, of course, is
no longer there either.

But then I worked
for Lehman Brothers,

and that's another firm
that no longer exists.

As a stockbroker,
your commissions are

paid on a monthly basis.

So every month,
you're starting from zero.

♪ ♪

And I'm thinking, if I'm
gonna take this sort of heat,

I gotta at least make sure
I'm gonna earn a living.

I was out of the business
for a few weeks,

and I happened to run into this
guy who I used to work with.

And he said, I'm at a firm
called Stratton Oakmont,

which I had never heard of.

It's in Lake Success,
New York.

And he's talking about
sort of a warehouse area.

It's amazing what's
happening there.

He goes, let me
show you something.

And he opens up his wallet,
and he pulls out a paycheck.

And it was something like
for $80,000 or $90,000.

And I said,
do these checks clear?

[car honks]

- Before Stratton Oakmont,
I spent years getting sober.

I was a drug addict.

I had a heart attack
when I was about 25 years old.

I was almost homeless,
and I got sober.

The miracle of it is,
I'm the only one that

was sober at Stratton Oakmont.

I'm the only one who
could tell the truth.

[chuckles]

My name is Jordan Shamah.

I worked at Stratton Oakmont
for around six or seven years.

I was working
in the Garment District,

selling dresses, sportswear,

and a very old friend
of mine called me and said,

would you like
to become a stockbroker?

I said, yeah, right.

[chuckles] Yeah.

He showed me a paycheck for,
like, 80,000 for the month

and said, come work
for this company

called Stratton Oakmont.

The parking lot was
full of nice cars.

And Danny Porush brought
me in.

- Danny Porush was Jordan's
partner at Stratton Oakmont.

He was an ex-garmento, as were
a lot of Jordan's brokers.

So Danny, in the film,
was played by Jonah Hill,

who is multiple characters.

There was a part of
Howie Gelfand as well.

And Danny was
a wild and crazy guy.

He was married to a girl
who, ironically--

it is very true--
was his first cousin.

- Yeah, my wife is
my cousin or whatever,

but it's not like
what you think.

- Is she, like, a first
cousin or is she--

- Her father is
the brother of my mom.

- Danny had three children
with his first cousin.

Fortunately, all
three children are OK.

Danny loved, loved,
loved to party.

Jonah Hill played Danny
really well in the movie.

- Here's what we do with
subpoenas at Stratton Oakmont!

- As far as just his
wild and crazy stuff.

[cheering]

Jordan was the brains
behind the business.

Danny ran the daily routines
and controlled the brokers.

- Danny immediately said,
you gotta come work here.

Jordan had an office
next door to Danny.

I walk in,
and Danny introduces me.

And Jordan wasn't
impressed with me at all.

He's not very tall,
5'7", maybe.

But he was wearing
cowboy boots,

which was sort of funny.

- I thought if I kissed
this fucking guy's ass,

you know, I'm gonna move
up quicker in the ranks.

And in terms of the interview,

I was 3 pounds of sausage
in a 2-pound bag.

But I did very well.

He said, Howie,
of course you're hired.

And that was my
entrance into hell.

- Hello, sir.
This is Jordan Shamah.

I'm calling you
from Stratton Oakmont.

How are you doing today?
I know you're busy.

I'll get right to the point.

Are you familiar
with Stratton Oakmont?

- When I first got to Stratton,

I didn't know if I was
gonna succeed, fail.

You start out
as a cold caller.

- Sir, with your permission,
all I would like to do

is introduce
myself and my firm.

- You're going to be
making 300 calls a day.

- And the cold caller's
role was to generate

leads for the broker.

The one thing the movie,
I think, got right was

when he was teaching
them the sales pitch.

That part of the movie
was accurate.

- Welcome to Stratton Oakmont.

- I think he was telling them
the name Stratton Oakmont,

they flew in on
Plymouth Rock or something.

- Our very founders sailed over
on the Mayflower

and chiseled the name
"Stratton Oakmont"

right into Plymouth
fucking Rock.

You got it?

- He brought out a script,
and he went through the script

with them, and that script
was very accurate.

- You finally found a broker on
Wall Street that you can trust

and who can consistently
make you money.

Sound fair enough?

- I gotta say,
I'm pretty impressed.

- All you had to do
to be successful

was follow the script
and use the rebuttals.

They would give you
a Xerox copy

of objections and rebuttals
for the things

that the person that you were
pitching would inevitably say.

And as depicted in the movie,

it was very, very similar
to the way we would

do it at Stratton Oakmont.

- I don't know you.
You cold called me.

You're a total stranger.

- I am in complete
agreement with you.

You don't know me.
I don't know you.

- Let me introduce
myself to you.

- One of the typical
rebuttals was,

I get a lot of these calls.

Mr. Jones, you should be
very happy about that.

You're a successful
businessman.

It's when you stop getting
these people calling you

is when you really
have to worry.

The guy says he's
happy with his broker.

That's great.

I'm only asking that when
I share an idea with you

and you can make money,
you have an open ear.

Is that fair enough?

- You sound like
a pretty sincere guy.

- Like in the movie,
Jordan would teach us,

you put your hand
on your heart.

If we really, really
knew each other,

this wouldn't be a yes or no.

This would simply be
a question of how much.

- When I would train
stockbrokers,

I would say, if you were going
into the ring with Mike Tyson,

you would certainly
expect that he would

try to hit you in the head.

Would you not have
a plan for that?

- I remember I say to
a guy who said no to me--

I said, listen,
just say no ten times.

Just do it.
You're gonna do it anyway.

Say no ten times,
and let's talk business.

- When the guy goes, well,
I gotta ask my wife,

you better have
an answer for that.

- Are you kidding me?

You talk to your
wife when you got

to hire the landscaper too?

- You make every
decision with your wife?

Be a man.

[tense music]

- Mr. Jones, could
you do me a favor?

Put your right hand
in your right pocket.

Move it over a little bit.

Now take a good squeeze.

What do you feel,
grapes or grapefruits?

I get it, fine.

You know, buy 100 shares.

You wore him down.

- When you got the yes,
you'd hang up the phone,

and there'd be a cheer,
because you just went to war,

and you won the war.

- The first time I walked
into Stratton Oakmont,

I remember it very vividly.

You pulled up, and you saw
all the luxury cars--

you know, Mercedes,
a Ferrari, a Testarossa,

car after car after car.

You walked in.

It was exactly like the movie,
men on the phone

yelling, screaming, hustling
and bustling, mayhem.

You have to understand,
I had only worked

in legit
professional environments.

So was this typical?

Was this normal?

This was not.

My name is Donna Schlessinger,

and I worked
at Stratton Oakmont

in the corporate finance
department.

I met Jordan through
a friend of mine.

He said, I want you
to come work at Stratton,

which I thought was
a little strange.

I don't have any
background in finance.

I have zero interest
in finance.

I was a young, married person,
and I knew

that we wanted
to start a family.

And he dangled
a very attractive salary

in front of me.

- Since the beginning
of Stratton Oakmont,

there was always
a meeting in the morning

and a meeting when
the market closed.

- They were inspiring,
and I think

that really, really
set the tone

for the brokers for the day.

- I was at a couple
of the morning meetings.

Jordan would go, Joe Blow,
what did you gross last month?

And Joe Blow would say,
I grossed $250,000.

And Jordan goes,
that's outstanding.

Come up here.

And the broker would
come up to the front

where Jordan was
giving the speech,

and he'd hand him
a brand-new Rolex watch.

These young brokers
were rewarded.

They all wanted to live
the same lifestyle.

And that's how he got
them motivated every day.

- In the meetings, I had them
visualizing their success.

I would talk about the life.

None of the kids went
to college, okay?

They were not the lucky
sperm club members.

And the first thing
I said to them was this.

You sit behind this desk,
you say the words I teach you,

you can become as powerful

as the most powerful CEO
in America.

- We had training every day.

I used to give motivational
meetings to the cold callers,

and I used to tease them.

I used to take a $100 bill
and say, I could rip this.

They'd freak out.

They'd freak out.

- How am I gonna motivate
500 animals

to be phone terrorists today?

- The cold callers were
paid very, very little.

And if they were willing to do
crazy things to entertain us,

we'd be willing
to give them money.

- These two twins offered
to hook themselves up

to a car battery
for ten seconds for 10 grand.

Well, the partners looked
at each other and said,

you know what?

We're in.

You could see them shaking,

and they could only hold on
for 8 seconds.

- Did they ever get paid?

- No, they never got a dime.

- For a couple hundred dollars,

you'd have to eat
a cup full of wasabi.

And there was always takers.

- The goldfish story is
one of the few true stories

out of that movie.

They just showed
one person eating the goldfish

when the truth is it was two--

Danny eating
the black goldfish,

and yours truly ate
the other goldfish.

- There was a sales assistant,

and just like in "The Wolf
of Wall Street movie,"

if she would shave her head,

she had a chance
to get $5,000.

That actually occurred.

- I don't think anybody
realizes that they're

a part of a cult while
they're in the cult.

[somber music]

The sexism, the condescension,

the objectification of women--

I mean, none of that
would fly today.

Women really weren't put in
important positions of power.

All of the decisions
got made by men.

♪ ♪

- I would say the first
big change that I saw was

when we started making money.

Even though he was
married to Denise,

his first wife,
that's when he started--

you know, womanizing,
I'll call it.

And that's how he met Nadine.

Right away, he was
mesmerized by her.

I think she was a model
or something.

- Nadine was a beautiful girl.

She was on commercials.

She was from Brooklyn.

She had a very cute smile,
good personality,

and he was smitten by her.

Nadine in the movie was
played by Margot Robbie,

who did a phenomenal job
with that Brooklyn drawl.

- Cheers.
- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

You've got an
awesome place here.

- How'd I meet the Wolf?
- Yeah.

- He had a party at the beach,
at his house.

I went with my boyfriend
at the time.

And unfortunately, just
like they show in the movie,

one of his friends
exposed themselves to me.

And then I said
to my boyfriend,

we got to get
the hell out of here.

And we left.

Jordan then made somebody
$15,000 in the stock market

to set me up to go out
with him and her as friends,

and I had no idea that it was a
whole setup behind the scenes.

- So he was working it
from behind the scenes.

- Very early on, yes.

Now, that should have
been a red flag,

but I was 22 and clueless.

- At Stratton, the way
the day typically started was

we had the quaaludes delivered
like a Domino's pizza.

Quaaludes was usually
the first drug you took

because it was a downer,
and then you took cocaine

because then that lifted
you back up.

Jordan would be
the ringleader.

Not even nearly close
to the amount of sales

would have been made
without the drugs.

- Quaaludes were, I think,

originally designed
as a sleeping pill.

Quaaludes are no longer made,
as far as I'm aware,

which is probably a good
thing, despite the fact

that they were really
and truly a great drug,

and we all loved them.

- People realized
that if you took more

than the prescribed amount,
you can get a high.

You can get a buzz.

[upbeat disco music]

They called it
the "I love you" drug.

You really--
you loved everybody,

and you told them.

I fucking love you!

- And it's not
like doing cocaine

where you're up all night,
and you crash,

and you feel miserable.

You end the night
with a great night's sleep,

and you're ready to do
it again the next day.

- These guys were doing
drugs like it was candy.

I remember guys would
come in on a Monday

and say, Jordan, look,
can you help me get sober,

'cause I can't
take it anymore.

He said, yeah, I'll help you.

They used to throw their
drugs in my garbage can.

By Tuesday, they were
getting high again.

A lot of brokers did drugs
to give them confidence

to get on the phone
and do the trading.

- I'm a stranger to this guy.

How could I possibly suggest
that he invests $1 million

into this sketchy stock?

Whereas if you're under
the influence of quaaludes,

you have no inhibitions
at all.

You'll say anything.

[mellow music]

- I would literally paint
a picture as if I was

this 25-year veteran
smoking a cigar

with a $25,000 Rolex

in a big glass office
in Manhattan

and that this guy was lucky
to have me on the phone.

That's why they gave me
that nickname, Velvet.

Often, when I would transfer
them to my sales assistant

to confirm the trade,
it was relayed to me

that a lot of these clients
would say to her,

I don't want to bother him,
but what did I buy?

- If you think about what
Stratton Oakmont was doing,

their business model was

cold calling
thousands of people,

selling them what's called
penny stocks.

Calling it a penny stock is
a misnomer

'cause the stock is not
valued in the pennies.

It can be valued
up to $5 a share.

Penny stocks aren't traded

on the New York Stock Exchange
or NASDAQ.

They're sold over the counter,

meaning they face
less oversight,

which allows aggressive brokers
to mark up the prices

and then pocket
the difference.

- The firm tells
the brokers to sell it

and offers a big commission.

- You know, you could
do so much volume

and have such a markup
on these penny stocks,

whereas instead of making
$200 on a trade,

you could actually make
2,000 or 5,000.

[suspenseful music]

- The broker could have
generated commissions

of $5,000, $10,000

for that 15-, 20-minute,
maybe half-an-hour effort.

For someone that only
completed high school,

that was not a bad
half an hour's day work.

- Did you ever think any of
the techniques you were using

were unfair or manipulative

or have second thoughts
about any of it?

- No.

Never even occurred to me.

I thought this was the way--

I thought this was Wall Street.

I knew nothing about
the stock market.

I never bought
a stock in my life.

I didn't do anything.

I thought, this is the way
the stock market works.

I wanted to believe it badly

because of the life
it was gonna give me.

[phone ringing]

- Stratton Oakmont.

How may I direct your call?

- When I started
out with Stratton,

I had a close group of friends
that I, little by little,

dissociated from because
they could never understand

what I did
and the values that I had

and the money I was making
and the life I was leading.

[laughter and chatter]

So naturally, I gravitated to
the people I was working with.

We ended up spending a lot
of our free time together.

- I had a girlfriend at
the time, very serious.

We were engaged.

And I said, boy, this is crazy,
but I'm gonna make money.

This is gonna be great,
you know, very excited.

And...

Unfortunately, my girlfriend
and I didn't work out,

but I was having fun.

- Jordan had a separate
wild life with the brokers

and entertaining them,

being out without
his first wife, Denise.

With Nadine, I don't know
how they started dating,

but I know it was
going on for a while.

- I was dating all
these rich playboys

and having the time
of my life.

So he really wasn't
on my radar.

But I'm from Brooklyn.
He's from Queens.

And we just really hit it off.

And then the next day,
as the movie shows--

- You're crazy.

- 1,200 square feet of flowers

in my little
800-square-foot apartment.

Yeah, he's "go big or go home."

- He was still married, though.

- He's like, I'm separated.

I have an apartment
in the city.

And I'm like, OK.

- Like in the movie,
Jordan was getting out

of a limousine
in front of his apartment,

and Denise happened
to be waiting for him.

- Get out of the fucking car!

- Jordan's first wife ripped
open the limo door

and said, you get the fuck
out of the car.

That is total fact.

- I think he was mesmerized
with this Nadine gal,

and he probably made
the decision, like, listen,

I'm becoming very successful.

I think a showpiece
would be nice

for me to have under my arm.

And he aggressively
pursued it.

- Oh, my God, it was amazing.

I totally got
swept off my feet.

We fell madly, madly in love.

It was just
so fast and furious.

Fancy dinners,
$2,000 bottles of wine.

Bulgari watch would
just show up.

It was glamorous and exciting.

Nobody talked
about love bombing

all those years ago.

I just was like, oh,
he loves me so much.

And that could have
been a piece of it too.

But now, in retrospect,
I say this very simply--

if it feels too good
to be true, it probably is.

[intriguing music]

- At my office, I always
had a saying that said

my investigators would
rather work cases

and go after bad guys
than sleep or eat.

It becomes almost
a personal mission

because we see the affront
that's going on to the public--

ruining people, whether
it was Stratton Oakmont

or any of the other companies.

- Can I get a little personal
with you, if I may?

- Go ahead.

- Well, my name is
Joseph Borg.

And back when this all started,
I was director

of the Alabama
Securities Commission.

A lot of folks don't
understand

what state securities
regulators do.

We're sort of like the
local cops on the beat

if somebody has
a financial problem.

We license and register
the stock brokers

who sell to the public.

My office in Alabama--
yes, in Alabama--

we got a call one time from
a gentleman who got fleeced

by some broker out
of New York,

but he couldn't remember
who it was.

So we started
an investigation.

That grew into
a multi-state investigation.

We start with the victim,
get all their records,

asking them to remember what
the conversations were like.

We're trying to
determine at what point

does Stratton Oakmont or any of
these companies cross the line.

What sounds wrong here?

[tense music]

- I've never shared
this story before,

just with my wife
and my children.

- Why don't you want
your identity to be seen?

- I don't want
the whole world to know

that I got, you know,
taken advantage of.

You know, I lost almost all
the money I had at the time.

I owned and operated
a restaurant in the '90s.

I think I was out front
in the dining room.

I was having my lunch, and
someone handed me the phone.

He says, you know,
I'd like to introduce myself.

I'm from Stratton Oakmont.

We're a stockbroker.

They were talking
about some stocks,

and I think he
mentioned Dr. Pepper.

He told me they
expanded some flavors,

and they were adding desserts.

All the feedback was
very positive.

And he said, we're
a very successful firm.

We've generated
a lot of millionaires.

I thought, oh, this is how
people, you know, get wealthy,

investing in stocks.

I didn't have any
experience prior to that.

I bought--I don't know
how many shares it was.

I thought it was
a good investment.

So that was a big mistake.

- Usually, if somebody
is guaranteeing something

and there's very little facts
that they actually represent,

they'll say, we have a history
of making tons of money.

♪ ♪

- And then a few weeks later,
he called and said

he had sold the Dr. Pepper.

And I said, whoa.
I didn't authorize that.

He bought some other stock.

I think it was,
like, a penny stock.

We started to have, like,
a little bit of an argument.

And he said,
oh, you'll be fine.

Just stick with me, you know.

It's an amazing company.

It's going to be worth
ten times what it is today.

You'll be so thankful.

He had nothing but good
things to say about it.

So I agreed to buy that.

- It is lying, cheating,
and stealing

any way you look at it,

because
under the securities laws,

brokers have
a duty to understand

not only the client,

but the stock
that they're selling.

That's an inherent duty.

It's required.

- I think you can
steal a lot more

with a briefcase than a gun.

- The problem with a lot
of Jordan Belfort's

boiler room operations is
the brokers,

these young fellers,

probably didn't really
have an idea of exactly

what was going on,
and it gives them an air

of plausible deniability.

But the problem
with "I didn't really know"

means that you probably
had an inkling

that something was wrong.

They had to balance
my lifestyle,

my current Mercedes,
nice apartment,

and money to burn,

with, do I really want
to know all the details?

[soft music]

- It took me about
a year, year and a half

to realize that
something wasn't right.

Christmas Eve, I opened one
of the largest accounts

Stratton ever saw.

Who's calling anyone
Christmas Eve?

A chubby, broke Jew.

Sure enough, I got
this guy on the phone.

I then walked into one
of the partner's offices.

I was as green as
they could be and said,

I have a funny feeling
if that stock goes higher,

like I just told him,
he'll buy more.

And the partner said, oh yeah?

Oh, good job, Howie.

I walked back to my desk,

and the stock was up
3/4 of a point.

- ♪ It's gonna be great ♪

- I thought to myself,
am I that fucking smart,

or did that guy in that
office just do something?

[dramatic music]

What did I do?

I immediately
called the guy back.

- ♪ There's nothing I'll let
get in my way ♪

- And he bought double
the amount

he had just bought
five minutes ago.

- ♪ Oh, it's starting today ♪

- And that was the first sign
that there was some--

there was some funky dunky
going around.

♪ ♪

- So this is now 1991,
and in those couple of years,

Jordan built himself
up a big empire.

He had a lot of brokers
working for him.

- When Jordan started
making money,

he and the brokers
would go out,

and he would wine
and dine them.

It was almost like a harem
that would follow him.

[percussive music]

We would frequently
go to Atlantic City.

- It could be a regular Tuesday
after the market closed.

- We'd have helicopters
take us to casinos.

- We would land
on top of a helipad.

- And the casino hosts would
meet us

and take us to some,
like, ridiculous suite.

- The butlers had already
rolled all the joints,

laid out all the quaaludes.

We then got fucked up.

♪ ♪

- Belfort's there,
and Danny's there.

And they would gamble

thousands of dollars a hand
in blackjack.

♪ ♪

- We'd have what we refer
to as a hoedown.

It was hookers.
It was drugs.

It was Sodom and Gomorrah.

It was gambling.

It was more of this,
more of that.

- We were all walking
around with a lot of cash,

and they'd pull out, you know,

50 grand out of their pocket
in hundreds.

[somber music]

And we would seek to get
these poor women

to do the most disgusting
possible things

a human being
and a human body could do.

And we would just keep
pulling out hundreds

until the price was reached.

And it was such a tragic
thing just to see

what money could make
somebody do.

We would do stuff like
that all the time.

I just hate myself
for acting that way.

And I paid the price for it,
rightfully so,

which I'm sure we'll
talk about.

♪ ♪

- The lifestyle was
incredible.

Jordan was absolutely
on top of the world.

And that was his
whole demeanor--

keeping everybody happy,

giving them enough
to keep them going.

- That's my number one post
on TikTok and Instagram.

--beautiful five-carat
emerald ring.

He proposed to me in front
of my favorite fast food place

in Sheepshead Bay,
Roll-n-Roaster.

I mean, at the end of the day,
I'm still a Brooklyn girl.

So there's all these
grand gestures.

And yeah, it was fun.

- At Jordan's house
in Westhampton,

he would have parties.

- Those parties could be filled
with people by the hundreds,

and 99% of these people
didn't even know who he was.

- The Hamptons, you typically
had normal families,

and here was this house
where it was Sin City, 24/7--

drugs galore,
hot chicks galore.

- Then at one point,
Jordan decided

to give one of his speeches
that he would do

at Stratton Oakmont
every morning,

but here it was on
the back balcony of the house.

- It was exactly as
it appears in the movie.

He had an upper deck outside
of the master bedroom.

- It's gonna take this company

into the fucking stratosphere!

- He would be up there
motivating, talking them up.

- It was a wild scene,

and the movie depicted that
pretty well.

[tape whirs]

- This is the big Hampton party
where Jordan gives a speech

and gets everybody riled up.

[cheering]

- I was down below
on the pool deck,

just looking up and
listening to Jordan's speech.

Everyone else around him
is on the string.

- The brokers really
felt like they were

part of something big,

and it was a privilege
to be included.

People revered him,

and he made sure
they looked up to him.

You're in my home,

and I'm serving you
lobsters and champagne.

I don't think anyone
really believed that there

was something coming, looming.

And even if they did know,

I don't think they really
thought that it would ever end.

[pensive music]

♪ ♪

- Jordan Belfort and me,

we sort of had parallel careers
in some respect.

When he was beginning
his fraudulent career,

I was beginning my career
catching the guys

who were doing
what he was doing.

I think we both underwent
a learning curve.

In my case, it was really
all about the hunt for me,

unwinding the best scam

that a very intelligent guy
could put together.

I knew I was going
to take him down.

I never doubted it.

And he hadn't counted on that.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- In the early '90s,
the money that was flowing

into these guys' hands
was just unlimited.

- We were loaded
and powerful and famous.

- That alerted
the authorities.

Time to really look into
what these guys are doing.

- The FBI sets up
a group of agents.

- Now you're under
full investigation.

- The organized crime guys
knew what kind of money

Jordan was making.

- Pressure started
to take its toll.

- Jordan was ripping apart
furniture, looking for drugs.

- These cracks are forming,

and there's going to be
a reckoning.

[dark music]

[dark music]

♪ ♪