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Jordan Belfort Net Worth (2025): The Wolf’s Fortune Then and Now
Jordan Belfort—The Wolf of Wall Street—is one of the most infamous names in modern financial history. From founding the scandal-ridden brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont to serving time in federal prison, Belfort’s story is one of dizzying wealth, total collapse, and an unlikely public comeback. But as of 2025, the question still lingers: What is Jordan Belfort’s net worth today?Let’s unpack how he made his money, lost it, and where he really stands financially now.
Who Is Jordan Belfort?
Jordan Belfort was born on July 9, 1962, in Queens, New York, into a middle-class Jewish family. From an early age, he showed a sharp mind for sales and a relentless drive to make money. After graduating from American University with a degree in biology, he briefly pursued dental school but dropped out on the first day after a professor told students that dentistry was no longer a path to wealth.Instead, Belfort entered the world of door-to-door sales, peddling meat and seafood to Long Island residents. He quickly became a top earner and even launched his own business, but it failed due to poor logistics and financial management. Undeterred, he turned his attention to Wall Street and became a stockbroker in the late 1980s.
Belfort’s big break came when he founded Stratton Oakmont, a brokerage firm that targeted novice investors with high-pressure sales tactics and misleading information. The firm specialized in “pump and dump” schemes, inflating stock prices to offload shares at a profit before they inevitably crashed.
At the height of his career, Belfort was worth over $100 million, living an over-the-top lifestyle filled with mansions, exotic cars, drugs, sex, and status symbols. But it was all built on fraud—and the fall came fast.
How Jordan Belfort Made His Money
Jordan Belfort’s fortune didn’t come from smart investments or long-term business strategy—it came from outright deception. Through his firm Stratton Oakmont, Belfort perfected the art of the “pump and dump” scheme. His brokers would cold-call unsuspecting investors and pressure them into buying shares of low-value, often fraudulent, penny stocks. These stocks were artificially inflated through hype and misinformation. Once prices peaked, Stratton Oakmont would sell off its holdings, leaving investors with worthless shares.This scheme allowed Belfort and his firm to rake in tens of millions of dollars, most of it in cash, and much of it laundered through offshore accounts. He reportedly stashed money in Swiss banks and even smuggled cash out of the U.S. using associates and relatives.
The firm also took small, lesser-known companies public, collecting massive underwriting fees and using insider access to further manipulate prices. One notable example was Steve Madden Ltd., the shoe company whose IPO was handled by Stratton Oakmont and became entangled in the firm’s fraudulent activities.
At its height, Stratton Oakmont employed over 1,000 brokers and moved more than $1 billion in assets. Belfort’s money flowed fast—and so did his spending: helicopters, sports cars, a yacht, and an infamous drug habit that reportedly cost him $2,000 a day.
Legal Consequences and Financial Collapse
Jordan Belfort’s empire couldn’t outrun the law forever. By the mid-1990s, Stratton Oakmont had drawn the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the FBI. Dozens of complaints from defrauded investors had piled up, and internal whistleblowers and former employees began cooperating with authorities. The SEC ultimately shut the firm down in 1996, and a full criminal investigation followed.In 1999, Belfort was indicted on multiple counts of securities fraud and money laundering. Facing decades in prison, he agreed to a plea deal and cooperated with federal prosecutors—providing evidence against other brokers and executives involved in the scheme, including his former partner Danny Porush.
Belfort was sentenced to four years in federal prison, of which he served 22 months. As part of the deal, he was ordered to pay $110.4 million in restitution to over 1,500 investors he helped defraud.
His financial collapse was total. The government seized most of his assets—his mansions, cars, boats, and bank accounts. Belfort went from living in luxury to sharing a prison cell in California. His marriage ended in divorce, and he entered rehab for his drug addiction before beginning his sentence.
Though he lost everything, the story of his spectacular fall would eventually become the foundation for his comeback.
Life After Prison
Jordan Belfort didn’t stay out of the spotlight for long after his release from prison in 2006. While many white-collar criminals quietly disappear, Belfort did the opposite—he reinvented himself. Drawing from his own story of excess, fraud, addiction, and collapse, he began writing his memoir while still in prison. That manuscript became The Wolf of Wall Street, published in 2007.The book was raw, outrageous, and brutally honest—chronicling his rise to wealth and descent into chaos. It quickly gained traction and was adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Released in 2013, the movie became a global hit and turned Belfort into a pop culture figure once again.
Belfort leveraged that fame to launch a career as a motivational speaker and sales trainer, pitching his “Straight Line System” as a method for ethical persuasion and closing deals. He’s since toured internationally, speaking to companies and audiences in finance, real estate, and tech—often commanding up to $75,000 per event.
He also launched an online presence, selling books, courses, and coaching programs. While many view his turnaround as impressive, others question the ethics of profiting off a story built on fraud—especially considering the millions he still owes in restitution.