PERSON: Jordan Belfort

CEO

Jordan Ross Belfort (born July 9, 1962) is an American former stockbroker, financial criminal, and businessman who pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of a penny-stock scam in 1999. Belfort spent 22 months in prison as part of an agreement under which, becoming an informant for the FBI and wearing a wire, he gave testimony against numerous partners and subordinates in his fraud scheme. He published the memoir The Wolf of Wall Street in 2007, which was adapted into Martin Scorsese’s film of the same name released in 2013, in which he was played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Belfort was born in 1962 in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, to Jewish parents, Maxwell “Max” Belfort and Leah. They were both accountants. His paternal grandfather, Jack Belfort (1904–1970), was an immigrant from Russia, while his grandmother was a Second Generation American born to Lithuanian parents in New Jersey. Belfort was raised in Bayside, Queens. Between completing high school and starting college, Belfort and his close childhood friend Elliot Loewenstern earned $20,000 selling scooped Italian ice from styrofoam coolers to people at Jones Beach Field 2 and West-end 2.

Belfort went on to graduate from American University with a degree in biology. Belfort planned on using the money earned with Loewenstern to pay for dental school, and he enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. However, the Dean of the dental school gave a welcoming speech on the first day in which he said, “The golden age of dentistry is over. If you’re here simply because you’re looking to make a lot of money, you’re in the wrong place.” Belfort subsequently elected not to attend the graduate program.

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