Jordan Belfort Net Worth: How Big Is His Fortune?

Debuting in 2013, The Wolf of Wall Street quickly became a blockbuster sensation, earning praise from both film enthusiasts and critics. Featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and helmed by Martin Scorsese, this dark comedy cleverly critiques the excesses and moral decay of stockbrokers during the 1980s and 1990s.

The film illustrates a lifestyle filled with excessive drug use, reckless driving of high-end cars, and a hint of financial deceit to sustain such opulence.

However, not everyone is aware that The Wolf of Wall Street is inspired by the real-life story of convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort, whose memoir of the same title served as the basis for the film.

In the 1990s, Jordan Belfort swindled thousands of unsuspecting investors out of over $200 million through his penny stock pump-and-dump operation. Having amassed a fortune in the process, his extravagant lifestyle, as depicted in the film, contributed to its immense popularity. Nevertheless, once his fraudulent activities were uncovered, he had to confront the repercussions of his actions, which included serving time in prison and making restitution payments to his victims.

While Belfort is no longer enjoying the wealth he once accumulated at the expense of deceived investors, he is not struggling financially either: the notoriety gained from the film enabled him to embark on several profitable ventures, including paid speaking engagements, consulting work, and book sales. At its peak, Jordan Belfort's firm, Stratton Oakmont, boasted annual revenues between $50 million and $100 million.

That said, Jordan Belfort’s net worth is significantly lower than it was at its zenith, but it is certainly not nonexistent, contrary to what some might assume about karma. Although pinpointing the exact amount is challenging, estimates can be made—so continue reading to discover Jordan Belfort's net worth in 2026, details about his notorious brokerage firm, his collaboration with the FBI, and insights into his personal life.

Jordan Belfort Age, Early Life and Career

Jordan Ross Belfort was born on July 9, 1962, in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents. Belfort demonstrated his business acumen early on, selling frozen Italian desserts from styrofoam coolers at the beach close to his house. In one summer between high school and college, he and his friend earned $20,000.

Belfort earned a degree in Biology from the American University and planned to use his ice cream money to pay for the dental school. He even enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, but walked right away after the dean said that dentistry is no longer a quick path to riches during the welcoming speech. Shortly after, he started another venture, a meat-selling business that at its peak employed several people and sold 5,000 pounds of beef and fish every week. Despite the initial success, his business eventually failed, and 25-year-old Belfort filed for bankruptcy. 

After he failed to make a fortune from steaks, Belfort turned to stocks: a family friend helped him to land a position at L.F. Rothschild as a trainee stockbroker. Allegedly, his first boss at the company told Belfort that the secret to success lies in “masturbation, cocaine, and hookers.” It’s unclear whether Belfort followed the advice of his senior at the time, but it’s known that he was laid off after the company went through the shakeout caused by the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash. 

The setback didn’t discourage Jordan Belfort from the idea of making a bank from stock trading. He had a couple more brief stints at Wall Street, expanding his experience and perfecting the persuasion tactics that later helped him to sell penny stocks to unsuspecting clients. By the late 1980s, Belfort felt confident enough to start his own firm, Stratton Oakmont. Jordan Belfort amassed wealth during his late twenties to early thirties.

Jordan Belfort Net Worth 1990

The decision to start his own firm seems to have paid off, with Belfort reaching a net worth of approximately $25 million in 1990.

Fraud and Conviction

Mr. Belfort initially founded his firm as a franchise of Stratton Securities, a minor league broker-dealer. Soon, he and his partner made enough to buy out Stratton and established Stratton Oakmont, which became one of the largest over-the-counter brokerage firms in the country. At some point, Stratton Oakmont employed over 1,000 brokers and managed more than $1 billion on behalf of its clients.

The firm functioned as a boiler room—a scheme in which highly persuasive salespeople contact investors through cold calls to peddle bogus investments—and has been under the close scrutiny of financial regulators throughout nearly its entire history. 

The type of fraud Belfort and his associates committed involved so-called “penny stocks,” which is the colloquial term for companies that are too small to be listed on a national exchange and are only traded over-the-counter, typically for less than $5 per share. Due to shallow market depth, one large order can significantly affect the stock price. This feature of OTC markets was abused by Belfort, who first accumulated stock at a low price and then lured buyers into the stock using the boiler room tactic. After the share price predictably jumped propelled by unsuspecting investors, he sold his shares at a profit, a classic scam known as pump-and-dump. It’s well documented that Belfort has defrauded 1,513 clients of over $200 million through this scheme. 

Besides securities fraud, Belfort’s firm also ranked as one of the most infamous money laundering cases in the US. To pull it off, Belfort established numerous shell companies and smuggled cash into Switzerland through his wife and mother-in-law. 

In 1996, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) finally shut down Stratton Oakmont after numerous legal actions against the company. In 1999, Jordan Belfort and his associate Danny Porush pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud and money laundering. Belfort was sentenced to 4 years in prison and ordered to pay back his victims but ultimately only served 22 months in exchange for the plea deal. 

After Belfort’s fraudulent behavior was exposed, he started cooperating with the FBI in hopes of reducing his sentence. He wore a wire to the meetings with his former associates and business partners, helping the investigators to cast a wider net on the corruption running amok on Wall Street. In the movie, it’s shown that Belfort passed the note to Porush, warning him against incriminating himself on the recording. In reality, nothing like that happened, as Belfort sold his associates to the feds the moment they started investigating him. Porush was independently cooperating with prosecutors as well but was deemed one of the key offenders in the scheme and received even a longer sentence than Belfort. As of now, Jordan has repaid approximately $13-14 million in restitution, with the bulk of this amount ($11 million) originating from the sale of assets surrendered during sentencing.

While running Stratton Oakmont, Jordan Belfort went full-on hedonist, throwing scandalous parties that reportedly involved midget-tossing contests. What is known for sure is that Belfort was living large at the peak of his career, indulging in drugs, mansions, yachts, and luxurious cars. Several cases of Belfort’s extravagant spending portrayed in the movie were later confirmed by the FBI agent who was closely following him—such as when Belfort landed his helicopter on his lawn, crashed his car while high, and insisted that the captain of his yacht sails through dangerous waters so passengers had to be rescued by Italian navy from the capsized boat.     

Controversy Surrounding Belfort’s Portrayal in the Movie

While Scorcese’s The Wolf of Wall Street is rightfully considered a modern classic, the movie has also been the subject of criticism regarding its portrayal of Jordan Belfort and the framing of his actions. 

Perhaps the most common point of criticism was that the film unnecessarily glorified Belfort to the point of downright celebrating his extravagant lifestyle, with little to no spotlight on his victims. Most of the swindled investors that fell for the pump-and-dump scheme were hard-working, middle-class people who couldn’t afford to lose their money, but the destruction caused by Belfort’s actions is never shown onscreen. It’s worth noting that the 2000 movie Boiler Room, although not based on Belfort’s story, provides a more realistic portrayal of the pump-and-dump schemes and their impact on victims. 

Moreover, Jordan Belfort was given a cameo near the end of the movie, which really catapulted him into mainstream popular culture and allowed him to capitalize on his newfound fame by selling his memoirs and building a career as a motivational speaker. All of that while his victims so far only received a fraction of the court-ordered restitution. 

Finally, the story from the very beginning is told through the eyes of Belfort (after all, it's his memoir that was a source material for the movie and much of DiCaprio’s dialogue comes straight from it), but the fraudster himself is an extremely unreliable narrator. The evidence for it is preserved in the very title of the book: although it’s easy to assume that “the wolf of Wall Street” nickname that became so strongly associated with Belfort’s personal brand was bestowed on him by the media and fellow stockbrokers, nothing could be further from the truth. Belfort himself came up with the title for his book while serving his sentence and at no point in his career or during his trial was referred to by anyone as a wolf. 

Career After Release From Prison

While serving his sentence at the Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, California, Belfort shared his cell with Tommy Chong, an American comedian convicted of selling bongs, who encouraged him to write a memoir. Before the book was even ready, the filmmakers launched a bidding war for the rights to the book. Eventually, Belford sold the film rights to his memoir to Red Granite Pictures for $1.045 million. The book itself has been published in over 40 countries and translated into 18 languages. 

Besides The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort also wrote Catching the Wolf of Wall Street, where he describes his life after the arrest and conviction. Besides his memoirs, Belfort also released two self-help books titled Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success and The Wolf of Investing. 

The fame brought on Belfort by Scorcese’s movie also allowed him to jumpstart his new hustle as a motivational speaker and sales coach. He started a company called Global Motivation Inc. that runs his speaking engagement gigs. Three weeks in a month Belfort spends on the road, speaking to the crowds about the importance of business ethics and learning from mistakes. Although it's unclear why of all people someone would like to be lectured by Belfort on business ethics, the demand is clearly here: the former stockbroker charges between $30,000 and $75,000 per speaking engagement and $80,000 for a sales seminar. 

Although initially Belfort vowed to direct all proceeds from his book sales and movie royalties to victims of his scheme, he had paid only $21,000 toward his restitution obligations out of $1.2 million received from the filmmakers. To date, Belfort has only repaid around $14 million out of $110 million mandated by the court. In 2018, he was taken to court over not paying the share of his $9 million earned from engagement fees towards his obligations and had 100% of his stake in a private wellness company seized to repay investors, despite his objections. 

Net Worth in 2026

Jordan Belfort’s net worth is one of the most disputed figures in modern finance, mostly because of his criminal conviction and restitution obligations. Estimates vary widely depending on the source. Some outlets place his current wealth between $100 million and $134 million, while others list him at negative $100 million, arguing that outstanding restitution owed to former clients outweighs his assets.

Since leaving prison, Belfort has rebuilt his income through legal business ventures rather than financial markets. A big portion of his earnings comes from book sales, particularly The Wolf of Wall Street and its sequel Catching the Wolf of Wall Street, which together generate an estimated $18 million annually. These books not only became bestsellers but also cemented his public profile as a cautionary tale of excess on Wall Street.

'Catching the Wolf of Wall Street' book

Another major revenue stream is motivational speaking. Belfort reportedly charges $30,000–$50,000 for virtual appearances and $200,000 or more for live events, bringing in roughly $9 million per year. Despite this income, debates over his true net worth persist due to unresolved restitution payments.

At his peak, however, Belfort’s wealth was on a completely different scale. During the height of Stratton Oakmont in the late 1990s, his net worth is estimated to have reached around $400 million in 1998, though exact figures are stilla bit unclear. Much of that fortune was later seized, lost, or repaid after his conviction, leaving his financial legacy sharply divided between past excess and present controversy.

Assets and Properties

Jordan Belfort's asset portfolio during his peak years was marked by extreme luxury and extravagance, reflecting the high-flying lifestyle portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street. His holdings included luxury cars such as Lamborghinis and Ferraris, yachts that hosted lavish parties, and mansions in exclusive locations. Belfort also invested in real estate properties, including multiple mansions, which symbolized his wealth and status. Beyond tangible assets, Belfort's portfolio once extended to businesses, including his infamous brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, and startups linked to his ventures. In recent years, Belfort has shown interest in modern assets such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs, aligning with contemporary investment trends. Despite the significant loss of wealth following his conviction, some assets have been liquidated to repay victims, but he still maintains a notable collection of luxury automobiles and real estate.

Jordan Belfort About Bitcoin and Crypto

Initially a crypto skeptic, Belfort has blasted Bitcoin on multiple occasions, calling it a fraud and insanity. 

“I was a scammer. I had it down to science, and it’s exactly what’s happening with Bitcoin,” he told CNBC in 2018. “The whole thing is so stupid, these kids have gotten themselves so brainwashed.”

However, as crypto prices skyrocketed during the 2021 bull run, Belfort apparently had a change of heart, voicing his support for the technology and announcing his investment in several crypto companies, such as wallet & NFT startup Squirrel Technologies and pet-themed crypto project Pawtocol. Both protocols at the time of writing appear to be functionally dead, as their governance tokens at the time of writing have a trading volume of $1,169 and $6,052, respectively. 

According to Belfort, he has declined an offer to launch his collection of Wolf-themed NFTs although he could have easily made $10 million from the sale. Instead, he charges aspiring crypto entrepreneurs tens of thousands for his advice on navigating the crypto market. 

In fall 2021, Belfort’s crypto wallet was compromised, which cost him $300,000. 

Jordan Belfort Wife

When he was still running Stratton Oakmont, Belfort divorced his first wife Denise Lombardo after meeting a 22-year-old model Nadine Caridi at a party. Six months later, they were engaged, and Caridi, called Naomi and played by Margot Robbie in the movie, later confessed that Belfort pressed her into marriage, threatening to leave if she refused his proposal. 

The couple had two children—Chandler and Carter—and although to the outsiders they may have appeared as a power couple living the perfect life of luxury, their actual relationship was anything but smooth. By Belfort’s own admission, he once kicked Caridi down the stairs and crashed the car into the pillar on his property with his daughter on board while being high on drugs. Besides domestic violence, Belfort was also reported to be a serial cheater, flying 100 staff and 100 sex workers to his Las Vegas bachelor party before his lavish Caribbean wedding. As his drug habit was only getting worse, Nadine felt increasingly unsafe in her marriage and divorced Belfort in 2005, after 14 years together.

The abuse Caridi suffered during her relationship with Belfort led her to seek therapy. She found it so beneficial in her healing journey that she decided to start her own therapy practice. At the age of 39, she went back to school to get a master’s degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute and then a PhD in counseling and somatic psychology. She has since remarried and now works as a therapist and marriage counselor. Caridi also has a TikTok account where she educates women about abusive relationships and how to escape them. In 2025, she released a book Run Like Hell: A Therapist's Guide To Recognizing, Escaping, And Healing From Trauma Bonds.

In one of her TikToks, Caridi shared that she met with Margot Robbie before the production started for the actress to learn her accent. The ex-wife confirmed that the film has been mostly faithful to the real events, although emphasized that it tends to gravitate towards Belfort’s POV.

“Can you imagine having a movie made about your life, about your love life that was a Greek tragedy? It’s not fun,” Caridi said in one of her videos. “If you look at it through Jordan’s lens, it was really accurate. I think that if you look at it through my lens, it wasn’t, and that makes sense because that was actually how our marriage was.”

After his divorce from Caridi, Belfort remarried in 2008 to Anne Koppe. They divorced in 2020 but reportedly still remain business partners. In 2021, Belfort married Cristina Invernizzi, a model whom he met for the first time in a pub in Mexico in 2019. 

If you are interested in more stories about crypto crooks, you may want to check our articles about Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, Do Kwon, and Ruja Ignatova.

Controversies and Public Image

Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street brought Jordan Belfort’s story to mainstream attention, but it also sparked controversy regarding the film’s portrayal of his life. Critics argue that the movie glamorizes Belfort’s extravagant lifestyle and downplays the severe consequences of his fraudulent actions on victims. The framing of his actions through Belfort’s own memoir creates a narrative that some see as self-serving, overshadowing the real harm caused by his schemes. Belfort’s cameo in the film further blurred the lines between infamy and celebrity, raising ethical questions about profiting from crime narratives. Public perception remains divided, with Belfort seen both as a cautionary tale and a controversial figure who capitalized on his notoriety to rebuild a lucrative career.

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Frequently Asked Questions and Personal Details

Who is Jordan Belfort?Jordan Ross Belfort is a former stockbroker and convicted fraudster, whose life story inspired the film The Wolf of Wall Street. Born on July 9, 1962, in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents, Belfort's early life included entrepreneurial ventures such as selling frozen desserts and meat before entering the stock market.

What was Belfort’s career after release from prison?After serving 22 months in prison for securities fraud and money laundering, Belfort reinvented himself as a motivational speaker, author, and sales coach. He launched Global Motivation Inc., conducting speaking engagements and sales seminars worldwide, charging up to $80,000 per event.

Who are Jordan Belfort’s children?Belfort has two children, Carter Belfort and Chandler Belfort, from his marriage to Nadine Caridi. Both children were portrayed in the film adaptation, highlighting the personal side of Belfort’s life amidst his controversial career.

What controversies is Jordan Belfort known for?Belfort's life has been marked by controversies including his fraud conviction, lavish lifestyle, drug abuse, domestic violence, and criticism over his portrayal in media. He has been married and divorced twice, with his personal relationships often under public scrutiny.

What was Stratton Oakmont?Stratton Oakmont was Belfort’s brokerage firm, notorious for its pump-and-dump schemes involving penny stocks. At its height, it employed over 1,000 brokers and managed more than $1 billion, but was shut down by regulators in 1996 due to illegal activities.