The Wolf (2014) - Jordan Belfort's fiery interview with Liz Hayes | 60 Minutes Australia

when the film The Wolf of Wall Street hit cinemas recently it was a box-office hit the Hollywood juggernaut was based on the real-life story of Jordan Belfort the one-time stockbroker spent 22 months in prison for fraud and money laundering after ripping off investors to the tune of more than 100 million dollars today Jordan Belfort insists he's a changed man in fact he's coming to Australia selling his tale of redemption and the importance of ethics in business at high-priced seminars but the real wolf of Wall Street may not be all he seems and authorities in the u.s. want to know what's happening to his newfound fortune my name is Jordan Belfort not him me Leonardo DiCaprio playing you instantly glamorizes you you realize that don't you makes you very attractive Thank You mr. Jordan when Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed the wolf of Wall Street I'm talking about this Jordan Belfort story was given a Hollywood punch forbes made me a superstar do you think that was a good thing should you have been an attractive Warsong I prefer him then Danny DeVito playing me at table say although I love Danny DeVito and everything I'm not saying I'm his handsome is Leo always concern about that but I had that charisma for sure that was part of who I was so to try to have someone with that lack the charisma that I had and still have to try to pull that off it would've been ridiculous but in truth Jordan Belfort Schleif was one of deceit depravity and drugs the former stockbroker defrauded his investors of millions of dollars before ending up behind bars does it glamorous your crime then does that film glamorize lam arises things that are glamorous some of this stuff is glamorous and I think if you walk into that movie and you can't if you walk up and I want to do just that and you have a problem and you walked into the movie with a serious problem it was a life of debauchery totally and you smile when you say that I usually smile when I'm embarrassed about something is that true yeah it's my way but I'm embarrassed about something else little you know help you not be a little bit embarrassed about it you know well what embarrasses you most about that time I mean listen some of this stuff you know with the with the hookers and the and that sort of stop obviously now is you know person sober for 17 years you know where I'm doing cocaine and orphan [ __ ] you saw in the movie over you know hookers derriere okay so that's sort of stuff obviously is it an embarrassing to me you know both had got out of jail eight years ago after having ripped off more than 1500 investors of more than 100 million dollars he's now 51 rebuilding his life and wealth and living on Hermosa Beach outside of Los Angeles so life is good life is great I mean I I'm happier today than I've ever been in my entire life I've never been happier and and I know why too and it's because um you know I don't nothin nothin over my shoulder I'm looking at and I look ahead and I just see a really nice future Jordan Belfort grew up here in the middle class suburb of Bayside New York it seems to me even as a kid you were destined to be an entrepreneur of some sort I learned my first mocking lesson at the age of 8 and I started shoveling driveways after snow storms at 10 did magic shows at 12 magic show magic shows the amazing Belfort yeah this this desire to make money do that that sort of was a life force from very early was it it was yeah and it was Wall Street Belford would fulfill that burning ambition to become rich so I walked into this brokerage firm you know I had to show my energy and it's true in the movie they say pitch the stock to my to the guy hiring me and and but they don't say the really classic wine is he he looked me goes wow how does I mean because I never because won't slow down slow and then met anybody like you guys either one things are gonna happen either you get end up being the biggest broker in Wall Street history or you could end up in jail the guy was a genius he was right on both the counts so there you go by 1989 both would was running his own investment banking firm Stratton Oakmont here on Long Island it was the setting for what would become a lifestyle of extraordinary excess was it as excessive as relatively it was an over obsession of drugs hookers spending money as much as you could spend boats planes helicopters but you know what he understands about one thing greed and about success and the big one he prays to the dollar he loves money private investigator and former NYPD detective Bo Dietl got to see Belford up close he was hired to build and maintain security for Stratton Oakmont and even played himself in the films he's trying to battle you he's trying to rattle your old lady so she nags you till you become a witness Diesel's became one of belphins close friends but today his views of Belfort are not so friendly he's smart you're dumb he's a punk and if he doesn't like it I don't think you do too much about it see it's here yeah you may have it here but he got a death Belford scam was fairly simple his staff of mostly young brokers were given the job of reeling in investors with legitimate stocks then eventually pressuring them to buy shares in worthless stock using a technique called pump and dump company would fall share prices up sell off their own shares living investors pennies you actually said that you were able to take imbeciles basically and turn them into cracking stock brokers who could make millions and you gave them a script which was ultimately to show them how to lie wasn't the idea of I'm having the script wasn't that teach them had a lie it was teaching not to lie when I walked into that firm but it was about teaching them how to manipulate no no it wasn't like that it was no easy it's the scripts it the sales itself but but what you were wanting them to do was to sell and and close deals to close the deal but to close the deal quite often meant that you had to really manipulate the client well that's ultimately what ended up happening Oh now remember I said in the beginning it wasn't like that ultimately yes as the ethics went down the tube so you're asking for your money back Oh get me a three or four different phone calls I mean screaming matches screaming at the top of my lungs we were calling each other every name in the book trying to get my money out of the thing 66 year old Bob Shirin was one of Stratton Oakmont victims he was in the garment business and lost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars I was primed to fall for a scam they were good at their scam that that puts the onus on you and not on Belfort well I think I guess if I don't accept part of the illness then all I got out of it was losing a lot of money it was never about all for us and screwed the client it was all about we're gonna make the clients ton of money we're gonna make a ton of money and the firm was gonna make it through it everyone's gonna see what wasn't one of your mottos you know don't hang up until the client either buys or dies yes that doesn't mean that the client is not gonna make money if he buys but as far as 81 year old Alfred Vita is concerned the intention was always to steal from him and they would not take no for an answer he tried to sell and they'd say oh no you should do this and do that so got to the point where I was borrowing money to invest in his so-called stock and I ended up losing quite a bit of money can I ask you how much money you lost quarter of a million dollars oh I love the outdoors like I say I'm here hour to everyday my own yard like Bob Sheeran Alfred vut got a call out of the blue and lured into Stratton Oakmont scams he was in his early 60s when he lost his money and spent some years after struggling to make ends meet so losing a quarter of a million dollars at that point in your life would have been devastating it would especially when you're thinking you're going to make some money and then ended up losing that much s and how long did it take you to recoup that money well I probably til I retired and I kept working till I was 70 years old to help pay back the banks and things that I borrowed money from do you feel that some of these investors should take some responsibility for what happened to their money no no I don't I think it's a very little loaded question I think that the answer that anyone else could say yes except for me well what's what what do you feel in your heart matter what that what matter what their part in it I still did things wrong okay so if someone is worth 20 million dollars and loses 300,000 that's terrible but it's not a tragedy if someone's worth 300,000 and loses 200,000 that's a nightmare so I do have colors of this I think it's much much worse when so it doesn't have a lot of money loses a substantial amount of money surely it should be it's all bad I believe it's all but I believe this I disagree 100% these degrees of bad you think they're degrees and in wall stock they all start it really bad but there's really bad and then horrifically bad yes and is it because you feel that they were wealthy and they could afford to lose some money certainly so yeah how do you feel about Jordan Belfort claiming his victims were rich people well I can assure you I was not there I was working hard trying to get a business bill and I kind of have two reactions to that one of them is so what you know a thief is a thief so I found that kind of a interesting self-serving communist that shows his lack of remorse Jordan Belfort maintains that his victims were rich people and he actually says that in part they should take responsibility for having lost their money oh really he was a damn thief he was a rat he set these people up that's the fact I'm angry at him coming up the law catches up with Jordan bull do record the day you were arrested yes some level it was relief I've said enough about stupa and the wolf let me ask you this once we want bares his teeth he's that an attempt to hide your knee but I'm not gonna bet their time here so I'm done with this next that's next on 60 minutes Jordan Belfort is the real wolf of Wall Street the one-time stockbroker on whom the Hollywood blockbuster was based his was a life of debauchery and fraud a crime for which ultimately he would be sent to prison now a free man and a motivational speaker Belfort says he's a redeemed man who was repaying his victims but as we discovered the new wolf might not be all he claims to be after years of making and spending millions of dollars Jordan Belfort world came crashing down when he was arrested in 1996 his fall was as spectacular as his rise do you recall the day you were arrested yes because I knew I was under investigation and like it was really weird I get a subpoena and then wouldn't hear anything for six months and another subpoena it looks like you're dying in slow motion so when I finally got arrested I felt sort of relieved but relief quickly turned to reality facing the prospect of more than 20 years jail he did a deal with the FBI and testified against his mates you had to rat on your friends to achieve a reduced sentence was that a good thing to have done well this is a good question you know I think I didn't do a very good job at it cuz I ended up slipping my friend the note but nonetheless she made the decision number one I had no choice because they were threatening to indict my wife but it wasn't just one match you had to give evidence against a number of people Oh 90% of people I gave evidence again we're already giving evidence against it was everyone was cooperating at the same time so it wasn't sort of like I'm the only one everyone was Jordan Belfort was sentenced to four years jail for defrauding his clients in order to pay restitution of 110 million dollars money to come from 50% of his gross earnings but Jordan Belfort argues that that court order only applied during his period of probation which ended in 2009 needless to say the US Department of Justice and his victims have a very different view how much have you gotten back about eight thousand eight thousand out of two hundred and fifty thousand plus I had to pay my attorney you know when she was working on that so I'm lost more than that so you're really out-of-pocket yeah do you believe Redemption means that you repay your victims a hundred percent well I'd like to know I think what I'm doing my best in my mind I always said would be the greatest ending to the story that every person got paid back every penny and that'll be the greatest end of the story and I really hope that happens so far it hasn't happened documents provided by the US Department of Justice show as of October last year Jordan Belfort had paid more than eleven million dollars the bulk of funds though coming from the sale of assets I've learned one thing over the years it's the value of building solid relationships certainly Jordan Belfort is making good money hey everybody Jordan Belfort here author of the wolf of Wall Street he's written two bestsellers about his criminal past solved the movie rights and since established himself as a highly paid speaker on the international circuit selling himself as a guru of business ethics and I have to tell you this you know some people think sales as a dirty word selling is everything in life and I think that you know one of the fundamental changes I went through when I got out of jail is I was like I am never gonna engage in another transaction or do another deal or get involved in any business at all where other people are not getting at least more value than I'm asking for in return for money the point the older and wiser now okay but the self-styled redeemed Belfer doesn't seem to have convinced the US authorities while there is still money to be distributed to investors the Justice Department believes Belfort has an ongoing obligation to hand over half his gross earnings it claims he made no payment in 2010 and paid only 21,000 in 2011 despite having received more than nine hundred and forty thousand dollars for the rights to the film not to mention having sold in Australia alone a total of 195 thousand copies of his books according to the Justice Department we just didn't sell any books for example in 2010 11 and 12 it's correct you sold no books no books no no I saw books because it's huge advances and until you recoup your advances then you start to okay but I haven't made a penny every penny since the original advances goes to invest I've gotten one penny the Justice Department would also like to know more about Belford earnings in Australia it says it's not able to subpoena records from the forum company bill foods management because it is based in Australia Belford agreement with the company is oral only there's no suggestion the company is doing anything wrong and Belfort believes he's being unfairly targeted by the Department of Justice to me there very little credibility right now I've been trying to settle this thing for years and they've essentially stonewalled me at every step so I've said enough about this let's move on let me ask you this once more okay honestly I'm ready I'm not gonna get attacked here I mean you're here so I'm done with this next I'm not attacking you all but I'm just you're a very nice woman but you starting to like gets towards obviously just the hatchet show up here so I'm kind of like you know pretty much ready to move on there's nothing hatchet about it well your to me there is it well the last thing is that apparently you have an oral contract with your management the Fordham company is that an attempt to hide your income next question there what you want here out of this is through it's done oh my god you got a lot of nerve boy I'll tell you honestly really do don't honestly why do I have a solution obviously and I was told it was a friendly nice interview and that's no one has ever treated as disrespectful as you have okay the wolf of Wall Street uses his criminal past to sell his future but try as he might he hasn't been able to convince everyone he's a new man and I get real angry when people steal and get something for nothing and you believe that's Jordan Belfort oh yeah what do you believe he's a hero or Robin Hood do you really believe that you can look upon him and have any sort of respect for him not I do you believe the victims will ever see their money I believe the US government should get off their butt and they should they stay the ones that should hold him to task to pay for this stuff eventually are still displeased but more compelling Belford return to finish the interviews what is your one greatest to regret my greatest regrets our shores losing people money absolutely if I could have done if people say when you change anything said I just wouldn't lose people money I want I think Roxy see because be raised to you today Jordan Belfort lives a very comfortable life with his fiancee and he says he is a different person sober honest and ethical and that 100% of all money he receives from his books and the movie will be given to his victims this is my fairy flower there those victims however are not holding their breath and believe any talk of redemption is somewhat premature I would caution those people who are accepting his messages just be careful know who your messenger is what would you say to the victims Wow first of course I'm sorry for what happened and that not a day goes by in my own life where you know I in some way don't pay for it and if you look at other people in my position I'm the only one who over the long terms been paying back investor so and I'm proud of that and you know my goal one day would be to pay back all the money can I I hope so no guarantees

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 941,315

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Keywords: Jordan Belfort, Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hollywood, entertainment, movie, stockbroker, money, Liz Hayes, interview, You've got a lot of nerve, walk out, 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia

Id: DsgF0_q8eJQ

Length: 20min 52sec (1252 seconds)

Published: Tue May 01 2018