DiCaprio.Īt the end of the movie, my reaction shifted. Belfort is depicted on screen, it is hard to truly feel the proper degree of disgust for one charmingly portrayed by Mr. I also braced myself for an unjustified, sympatheticĭepiction of Mr. I knew it would take liberties with some important facts,Ĭonflating crucial events into digestible scenes more fitting for a screen narrative, and that the truth about Stratton Oakmont would be muddled in the bargain. It is classic Scorsese: fast-paced, powerful, aggressive storytelling. “It’s just a movie,” many have reminded me, and I watched with this in mind.Īnd what was my reaction to the movie? For most of its three hours, it met my expectations. Prosecution don’t always make for compelling on-screen storytelling. The details that animate a successful criminal The filmmakers have said that they didn’t want to depict Stratton’s victims because it would detract from their focus on the brutality of the wrongdoers. In short, the books were what I expected from Mr. Belfort, sandwiched between stories of drug-addled fraud and nasty put-downs of those closest to him. Similarly, remorse is merely a convenient word for Mr. Victims don’t figure in the Belfort books, though thousands have not been recompensed. Porush didn’t stand up against law enforcement,īut rather caved, quickly agreeing to cooperate against virtually everyone close to them.Īlthough they were required to turn over 50 percent of whatever they earned to their victims, sadly, little has been collected. His now-defunct firm, Stratton Oakmont, wasn’t representative of the typical Wall Street brokerage firm. He aggrandized his importanceĪnd reverence for him by others at his firm. No one ever called him the Wolf of Wall Street until he created this name as a title for his books. Belfort, when he wrote his books years later, he invented much. Us the truth, or face up to 25 years in jail. Belfort and others, I was able to judge his accuracy perhaps better than almost anyone. After spending hundreds of hours interrogating Mr. Coleman, which are the basis for the movie. Belfort’s two memoirs about his life of crime and his time cooperating with me and They each received substantially reduced prison terms from the court as reward for their assistanceįellow lawyers, friends and family who know of my involvement have been curious to hear my reaction to the film. To be extremely valuable to law enforcement, contributing to dozens of convictions of other significant wrongdoers. They later wore wires for us, surreptitiously recording dozens of former and current business colleagues and friends, with whom they had been engaged in fraud for years, right up to their arrest. Porush remained in jail for several months, and so neither knew the other was speaking with us, allowing us an unusual opportunity 19, 2013)īecause no one outside a small circle in the Department of Justice knew of their cooperation, we were able to secretly debrief them daily for months, documenting their almost too-outlandish-to-believe accounts of serialĬriminal fraud, deceit and debauchery. Withinĭays of being charged and arrested, the two opted to cooperate with our investigation.
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Belfort and his real-life partner, Danny Porush (depicted by Jonah Hill in the movie). Coleman and I chased down cooperating witnesses and evidence around the world that culminated in the indictment of Mr. Belfort, depicted by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie, and his cohorts at Stratton Oakmont, a classic, Long Island pump-and-dumpīoiler room stock brokerage firm that stole hundreds of millions from investors. special agent, led the criminal investigation of Mr. This is because I prosecuted Jordan Belfort when I was an assistant United States attorney in Brooklyn.
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I have a close connection to the crazy story depicted in the movie. For me, the movie raised issues beyond its artistic or entertainment value or the depth of the acting performances by its star-studded Like many others, I saw “The Wolf of Wall Street” over the holidays.
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Cohen, a former federal prosecutor, is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street." Credit Mary Cybulski/Paramount Pictures