The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street – Jordan Belfort

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Jordan Belfort built Stratton Oakmont, a brokerage firm on Long Island, into a money-making machine that brought him enormous wealth and a lifestyle of extraordinary excess. His firm’s aggressive sales tactics and fraudulent practices eventually brought him to the attention of federal authorities, and he was convicted of securities fraud and money laundering and served time in prison.

In The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort tells his own story with startling candor. He describes how he started his career on Wall Street, how he built a team of young, hungry stockbrokers trained to sell stocks through high-pressure tactics, and how the firm manipulated stock prices and defrauded investors. He recounts the wild life that followed, filled with lavish parties, mansions, yachts, drugs and reckless behavior, as well as the toll it took on his marriage, his health and the people around him.

The memoir also describes the investigations that eventually brought down his empire, his cooperation with authorities and his downfall.

Written in an energetic, often darkly humorous style, the book offers an inside look at the culture of greed and excess that can flourish in finance. It was adapted into a major film directed by Martin Scorsese.

The Wolf of Wall Street will interest readers curious about finance, white-collar crime and memoirs of excess. Readers should be aware that it describes illegal conduct and its consequences for victims, and contains drug use, explicit sexual content and strong language, so it is intended for adult readers.