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Impactors of Jordan Belforts and success
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Jordan Belfort: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Who do you think of when you hear Wall Street? Does one think of a random stockbroker or the infamous Jordan Belfort? Ultimately, one thinks of Belfort and his notorious crimes on Wall Street. Jordan Belfort has had a major impact on today's society because he changed the way we see Wall Street, showed how easy it is to go from the top to the bottom, and showed how a successful life isn't always perfect. Jordan Belfort is famous for his crooked way of earning his millions as a stockbroker on Wall Street. Even Belfort started at the bottom, on his first day in Wall Street he was told he was “lower than pond scum”(Belfort 1). After writing a book about his happenings on Wall Street, we’ve seen the …show more content…
After his scandals were exposed, his wife, whom he called “The Duchess”, left him (Belfort 517). Although he worked his way to the top, Belfort hurt many people to get their. In the end, he had 1,513 victims from his “boiler room” scheme. (“Real Wolf”). His successful life came crashing down around him. “It was rather a fine place [his beach house in Southampton] to watch the walls of reality come crashing down on me—listening to the breaking waves of the Atlantic Ocean and watching the breathtaking sunsets over Shinnecock Bay, while my life came apart at the seams” (Belfort 517). Even though it was quite lavish, Belfort would soon learn that even the perfect life has its down falls. In conclusion, Jordon Belfort has had a major influence on today’s world. Belfort changed the way that people today see Wall Street and the world of stockbrokers. He lived at the top of the food chain but fell back to being “pond scum” (“The Wolf”). He even proved to all that a successful life isn't always the most perfect. Belfort served his time and is even a motivational speaker now. Now, Belfort is an example of how drastically one’s life can change within minutes, days, months, or
The PBS Frontline Documentary The Untouchables shined light on the claim that wealthier people in today’s society get off easier when they break the law. During the financial crisis of 2008, it was said that fraud was committed when many mortgage bankers and high-end executives on Wall Street knowingly bought loan portfolios that didn’t meet their policy credit standards. Even with the evidence in place, no one was arrested and held responsible for a stock crash that nearly destroyed the entire financial system of the United States. With a powerful justice system and justifiable evidence in place, no was prosecuted. Did the justice system not take the necessary steps to ensure that justice was served
“Bernie Madoff began investing in penny stocks in 1960, and due to his impressive work ethic, received several big breaks. The first of which was his father in-law loaning him $50,000 to invest, and soon after, Carl Shapiro, a man who made his fortune in women’s clothing gave Madoff $100,000 to invest on his behalf” (Collins 2011). With this kick-start, Bernie quickly began making a name for him, especially as he promised clients a guaranteed 20% annual return on investment. This, coupled with his firm’s adoption of the latest technology made them a tour-de-force in the investment world. But what makes his eventual downfall more interesting is that he was not just a crook, Madoff did manage a successful, and legitimate brokerage firm. To some extent, the credibility he earned from these legitimate busines...
In Karen Hos’ Liquidated, she aims to study the relationships between corporate America and the worlds greatest financial center. . . Wall Street. She puts all her three years of research in her ethnography and thus the very first page of chapter one, we can already understand Hos’ determination to understand what Wall Street is all about. The first main theme explained is the relations in Wall Street that are based on a culture of domination of staff members, their irresponsibility dealing with corporate America, and constant changes that occur during this process. Another major theme we see in her ethnography is that Wall Street, first used for the communities wellbeing, is now profit oriented.
To achieve this, “banking firms provide [them] with a way to maintain [their] elite status in society by providing avenues to wealth and power that other professions do not” (179). They leave them unconsciously with an ultimatum, to either continue living their prestigious lifestyle and be the in the top with the elites, or settle for lower than what they’ve worked for, which is any other career path. Students who attend Princeton and Harvard who aspire to become teachers or writers are told they are settling for less than what they deserve and will be “more happy” with an investment banking career. There is a subtle form of manipulation being acted upon prospective students from investment bankers which is hidden by all of the positive, glamorous stigmas of Wall Street. To fully understand Wall Street as a whole, someone must know the small components that make it come together as a whole. This is shown through Karen Ho’s observations such as learning that students at Princeton and Harvard do not need to hold a finance degree to obtain a job on Wall Street. Whereas, Yale and Brown students must have a finance degree and are forced to show their abilities at a higher level than Princeton and Harvard students. Underneath all the dashing appearances and smart conversations on Wall Street, there is a hidden bias and a constant manipulation system in order for them to get what they want. The small components of Wall Street consist of their “small” priorities,
Jordan Belfort starts off his first day on Wall Street eager to make it to the top, only to be told he is nothing more than lowly scum by Thomas Middleditch’s character. Mark Hanna takes Jordan out to lunch later that afternoon to show him the “real” way of making money. Mark explains that there is only two ways of being a stockbroker without losing your mind, and that is with cocaine and prostitutes. Mark incepts that making money is the only goal one should have. He tells Jordan that his only objective is to move money from the client’s pocket to your pocket. Jordan is first hesitant about cheating his client’s money away from them, but puts his skepticism aside and joins in on Hanna’s power chant. Jordan faces an internal conflict similar to what many have felt; should I choose to make money even if I know my actions to obtain that money is morally wrong? Like Jordan most people selfishly continue to make money, and push away their morals aside.
In conclusion, The years 2008 shined a light on a group of people who were considered high society. When the stock market crashed in September 2008, the world shines a spotlight on the financial corporation. The world now knows what words such as hedge fund manager and financial instrument such as credit default swaps mean today. The economic downturn forced society to ask questions not normally asked and now pay closer attention to white collar crimes.
The case being that of Jordan Belfort during the latter part of the 1980’s and early part of the 1990’s. The crime concerned Belfort and the company he had established that of Stratton Oakmont. The company had made a living of selling low quality stocks to a variety of individuals. Stratton Oakmont employees would misrepresent the stocks of companies and make fraudulent claims in order to get the people to purchase the stocks. To go along with the action of making false claims, Stratton Oakmont would buy stocks into the companies at a very low rate. Once the price of the stock had become inflated to the point where the price would be good for the selling, the company would resell their stocks at a higher price. This practice would be termed as “pump and dump”. Stratton Oakmont would go on to dup more than 1,000 clients which totaled to around 200 million dollars. Jordan Belfort would go on to be fined an excess of 100 million dollars and would serve a term of four years in prison. The company in which Belfort created had received a hefty fine of 2.5 Million Dollars and prevent Belfort from being involved with Stratton Oakmont. The case was so unique and interesting that a movie would eventually be made called the wolf of wall street in 2013 and would garner countless
Bernie Madoff is one of the greatest conman in history. The Bernie Madoff scandal takes the gold as one of the top ponzi scheme in America. Madoff started the Wall Street firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, in 1960. Starting off as a penny stock trader with five thousand dollars, earned from his workings as a lifeguard and sprinkler installer, his firm began to grow with the support of his father-in-law, Saul Alpern, who helped by referred a group of close friends and family. Originally, his firm made markets by the National Quotations Bureau’s Pink Sheets. However, in order to compete with the bigger firms that were trading on the New York Stock Exchange floor, his firm started to use very intelligent computer software that help distributed their quotes in second’s rater then minutes. This software later became the NASDAQ that we know today. In December of 2008 Bernard Madoff confessed that he had embezzling billions of dollars from investors. It is estimated to have lasted nearly two decades, and stolen approximately $64.8 billion. On December 11, 2008 he was arreste...
Buffett has remained adamant that the core responsibility of a company is to maintain its reputation. Infamous for his one liner’s Buffett claims, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” In 1991, Buffett solidified himself as a person of integrity and honesty as he appeared before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S House of Representatives, to accept responsibility for the Salomon Brother’s scandal. Speaking in first person narrative, Buffett personalizes his message, each sentence averaging ten words or less. Moreover, the language is concise and to the point, inclusive of all “8,000 employees regret” illustrating the innocence of those affected. Buffett’s specific word order depicts a firm, uncompromising leader, whose choice of words, “lose money for the firm by bad decisions, I will be very understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless” exemplify Buffett’s successful attempt to salvage its reputation, but most importantly persuade
“After law school, Peter Madoff’s daughter became his deputy at Uncle Bernie’s firm, where she served as compliance director (Arvedlund).” She spent almost $400,000 at a high-end sex store on the company’s American Express (Arvedlund). The company also paid $2.9 million for a house in East Hampton for her and about $250,000 for rent in New York City between 2002 and 2004 (Arvedlund). “Shana married Eric Swanson – former SEC official whose team of examiners ran a routine check of Madoff’s brokerage firm in 2004 and reported nothing odd (Arvedlund).” It is obvious that this company was swimming in nepotism and fraud and that even the SEC didn’t have independence in auditing when it came to Bernie Madoff’s
The author depicts how a Ponzi scheme works and recounts how Bernie Madoff used the Ponzi scheme to take advantage of investors. The author states that the only reason a Ponzi scheme works is due to people’s greed (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2015). The SEC was notified about Madoff’s ruse, but individuals in the SEC neglected to fully investigate on multiple occasions, which led to Madoff being able to get away with his scheme for over 20 years. Madoff was able to diffuse the SEC and mislead individuals with his scheme by employing family and friends to keep anyone on the outside from having inside knowledge of his business. It did not matter who or what organization invested with Madoff; he was without conscience as to whom he defrauded. Eventually Madoff plead guilty and was sentenced to 150 years in prison; many employees and friends who were included in his scheme and were also convicted of various levels of fraud. This is of little consolation to the individuals and the billions that were stolen from them. The author states that the government is attempting to recover some of the funds from the fraudulent individuals and establish laws to assist the wronged individuals.
I viewed the documentary written by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, “The Smartest Guys in the Room”. This documentary helped me to gain a better understanding of one of the biggest scandals in the history of the United States. In this paper I will examine some main points of interest in relation to the scandal concerning the Enron Corporation. The documentary began with Peter Coyote narrating about the suicide of one Enron’s former top administrators, Cliff Baxter. Jeff Skilling, another former top administrator of Enron had a close personal relationship with Cliff Baxter. Skilling had alleged in a roundabout way that as far as he knows, Baxter killed himself due to the significant struggles of Enron. He also did not have the self-assurance
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is a film that epitomises every man’s downfall… greed, ambition and money. The most iconic and famous place for sniffling out the worst of the lot is Wall Street and this is exactly where the tale begins.
Without Boeskey’s help, catching other insider-trading criminals would have been almost impossible. Ivan Boesky even wrote a book about his involvement in the world of insider trading; he called it Merger Mania. This case illustrates that there are real consequences to white collar crime. In addition to paying the fifty million dollar fine, he relinquished another fifty million dollars of his illegal trading profits. He still had millions remaining, however, from his illegal gains.
The case of Bernie Madoff has been chosen as my case study since it is one of the biggest investment fraud occurred in history in the US and internationally. The scandal had a major impact affecting more than 15,000 investors and over 147 private foundations with an estimated losses of $50 billion.